Fairfax staff return to work
Photographers at The Age protesting the redundancies.
Fairfax staff on strike over proposed job cuts have returned to work at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and will seek a meeting with their employers tomorrow afternoon to discuss alternative cost savings.
Around 500 staff at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age walked out yesterday after management threatened to dock wages and cut 80 jobs from its photography, editorial and Life magazine divisions in Melbourne and Sydney. And sources at Fairfax said it was uncertain this morning whether staff would return to their desks after the walkout ended at 3pm.
However staff voted in favour of returning to work while seeking a meeting with management tomorrow to discuss alternative cost savings.
A source at Fairfax said staff expect management to meet with them and they will then meet with members to discuss and decide the next course of action.
Ben Butler, deputy president of the media branch of the MEAA, which represents journalists photographers and subeditors, confirmed staff had returned to work.
“House committee to report back on negotiations with management tomorrow morning,” he said.
The strike was supported by subsequent walkouts by staff at The Canberra Times, Illawarra Mercury, Newcastle Herald and there was a partial walkout by some union members of The Australian Financial Review.
Journalists returning to work thanked their colleagues at other Fairfax newspapers for their support. The MEAA tweeted:
Fairfax management are understood to have sent emails to employees reminding them of their responsibilities after returning to work.
“We understand that the Fairfax editorial employees who commenced unlawful industrial action yesterday have now returned to work. It is the company’s expectation that all staff perform all of their usual duties,” said Allen Williams, managing director of Australian Publishing Media, which publishes the newspaper’s major mastheads.
“By entering the work premises, the company assumes that you are ready, willing and able to work as usual.”
Michael Stutchbury sent an email to his staff thanking those staff the business newspaper who chose not to walk out.
The email signed by the editor-in-chief of the Financial Review and its editor Paul Bailey thanked those staff who did not participate in the partial walkout.
“Both of us would like to personally thank all those who have helped keep our sites running and our papers coming out at the Financial Review and Business Day over the past 24 hours. We appreciate the efforts of all those who are keeping the show on the road, for continuing to serve our readers high quality content will do most to ensure the health of our enterprise and so underwrite our quality journalism,” they wrote.
Allen Williams’s email to staff:
Dear All
We understand that the Fairfax editorial employees who commenced unlawful industrial action yesterday have now returned to work. It is the company’s expectation that all staff perform all of their usual duties.
By entering the work premises, the company assumes that you are ready, willing and able to work as usual.
The company intends to continue consulting with staff and their representatives about the proposals announced on 7 May 2014.
Allen Williams
Managing Director – APM
Michael Stutchbury’s email to staff:
Dear everyone,
Both of us would like to personally thank all those who have helped keep our sites running and our papers coming out at the Financial Review and Business Day over the past 24 hours. We appreciate the efforts of all those who are keeping the show on the road, for continuing to serve our readers high quality content will do most to ensure the health of our enterprise and so underwrite our quality journalism.
Aiming high
We’d also like to point to Christopher Joye’s efforts this morning in scoring the first serious interview with the just-retired director of the US National Security Agency, General Keith Alexander. Today, this is a worldwide yarn. For instance Wired magazine reports on the 16,000 word interview that it says Alexander ‘inexplicably’ gave the Australian business and financial daily. The inexplicable thing is why the rest of the American media did not do this first. The very instructive thing is how an Australian-based journalist can beat the rest of the American and world media on global yarns. We urge others to be encouraged by this case study to aim high.
Awards
Speaking of aiming high, congratulations to our winners at last week’s Citi journalism awards and the Society for News Design creative competition awards:
* Financial Review art director Jeff Allen won an award of excellence for news design/sections at the SND awards.
* Daily cartoonist David Rowe won an award of excellence for illustration.
These are both highly-regarded awards from a prestigious global newspaper design organisation.
* For the Citi awards, Tony Boyd won the general business category for his “Pursuit of a Genius” piece in the Weekend Fin section on Gordon Fell’s trials in the wake of the Allco collapse.
* John Stensholt won the financial markets category for his ”The sage of small stocks” cover story for the Financial Review Magazine in April last year on David Paradice.
Both of these pieces set a benchmark for the best of business journalism in Australia. Also outstanding was Andrew Cornell’s winning of the economy category for a series of articles in the Financial Review on agriculture and the role of foreign investment. Not sure if writing for the ANZ will qualify!
Chessell
Last year’s overall Citi awards winner, James Chessell, has landed in London, where he will write for the Financial Review and Business Day for the next three years. It is good to see that the new business model still values putting some of our very top people in key foreign postings. Obviously, we will miss James’ news-breaking track record. But we are sure he also will make a big impact on his side of the North Atlantic. And we’re confident that our soon-to-be-activated leadership structure – including Paul Bailey as Editor-in-Chief of the integrated business and finance team – will to continue to drive the best business and finance journalism in the country.
Michael Stutchbury, Editor-in-Chief
Paul Bailey, Editor
