Unions lobby MPs over ITV job cuts

Bectu and the NUJ are organising a lobby of Parliament to protest at more than 500 redundancies in ITV.
The lobby runs from 4pm to 6pm today (March 23) in Committee Room 16 in the House of Commons, and MPs who attend will be urged to support an Early Day Motion condemning the job cuts, tabled by Frank Doran MP.
Both unions believe that the job cuts - 154 at Meridian, and 400 at Carlton's Birmingham and Nottingham sites - will undemine ITV's obligations to produce programmes in the regions.
If the cuts go ahead, the newly-merged ITV is likely to use them as a blueprint for further cuts in regional centres, as the company consolidates its programme-making in just two or three cities.
When the merger of Carlton and Granada was first proposed, Bectu acknowledged that the move might be economically justified, but called on the government to make sure that the new company honoured its legal commitment to regional programming.
(GB)