Hundreds of Fairfax Media staff in Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle and Canberra have returned to work after walking off the job in protest at the company’s plan to axe 70 jobs in Sydney and Melbourne.
Employees at the Sydney Morning Herald, Age, Australian Financial Review, Newcastle Herald, Illawarra Mercury and Canberra Times left their offices for a snap 24-hour strike at 3pm on Wednesday, 7 May. Staff at the Brisbane Times refused to share their content with the interstate print mastheads as a show of solidarity.
Staff at an unauthorised stop-work meeting in Sydney voted 159 to one for the strike action. As they were leaving the building, Australian publishing media director Allen Williams sent an email threatening staff who participated in industrial action with “disciplinary action” and the possible loss of their jobs.
The email said staff at the stop-work meeting would be docked four hours’ pay and urged employees not to “feel intimidated or pressured into taking industrial action”.“We have responsibilities to our audience across print and digital platforms”, Williams wrote in a statement whose irony was not lost on Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance federal secretary Christopher Warren.“At what point does Fairfax stop being a news organisation and merely become a commissioning agency that outsources everything it does?”, Warren asked.
The union labelled the attack on jobs as “yet another short-sighted cost-cutting move that is an assault on journalism”. Under threat are 30 jobs from the finest photography departments in the country, 25 editorial production jobs and 15 positions in the company’s life media department.
Employees were particularly shocked by the callous handling of the announcement. Management gave affected staff only 20 minutes’ notice ahead of meetings in which many were told their jobs would be eliminated. Others received no notice at all and found out via email.
The announcement of more job losses follows the company reporting after tax profits of $193 million in their latest financial results, released in February.
The last time Fairfax staff went on strike was in May 2012, when the company moved scores of production jobs to New Zealand. In June 2012, the company announced further plans to slash 1,900 jobs over three years. Around 150 jobs were lost during the year. In October last year, the company axed 45 jobs in its business and magazines sections in Sydney and Melbourne.
Staff voted to return to work on the condition that the company meet with the union within 24 hours. Further strike action remains a possibility.
