ITV Yorkshire - Industrial Relations

Industrial Relations

From its inception YTV had a turbulent relationship with the broadcasting unions (a common theme within ITV). Many employees at the new company were recruited from the Manchester and Birmingham studios of the former ABC Weekend Television and the London station Rediffusion; the upheaval of enforced job changes on these employees combined with a relatively new management of a new ITV station and huge investment by shareholders provided fertile ground for the unions.

In 1970 technicians broadcast a handwritten note that read "'Yorkshire Television have threatened to sack us, we are going on strike, good night" before that evening's News at Ten.

YTV was forced off the air by more industrial action over the whole of Christmas, 1978. This partially coincided with a two-day national shutdown of both BBC channels by strikes in December of that year, meaning that for those two days the people of Yorkshire had no television at all. Many of ITV's Christmas programmes were eventually shown in the Yorkshire region in early 1979, after the dispute had ended.

In the ITV strike of 1979 the station, like the rest of the network, was off the air for over two months (although appeals by the West Yorkshire Police in their search for the murderer known as the Yorkshire Ripper were periodically transmitted during the strike. However the dispute was more intense at YTV as the company's management were seen as instrumental in fighting the unions, especially the managing director Sir Paul Fox.

In the 1980 franchise round several YTV staff submitted their own application for the Yorkshire franchise under the name of 'Television Yorkshire'.