Fairfax extends talks with striking journos, union proposes ‘insourcing’ solution
Fairfax is locked in talks with journalists and the journalists’ union over the company’s decision to outsource 60 production jobs to New Zealand.
Fairfax Regional Media agreed to extend the deadline for talks until close-of-business on Thursday, after strikes and rallies were staged in Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle against proposals that could see over the editorial staff of some mastheads reduced by a half.
The decision came after journalists from the Newcastle Herald, Illawarra Mercury and Sydney Morning Herald and officials from the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance spent three and a half hours with Fairfax Regional Media boss Allan Browne in Sydney looking to extend the consultation beyond close-of-business today.
A statement from Fairfax, issued last night, read: “We understand the MEAA will be putting a proposal to us, which we will consider on its merits when we get it.”
The MEAA is putting together an alternative strategy based on an ‘insourcing’ model and is to meet with Fairfax management tomorrow afternoon.
Journalists and the union have been mustering support via the We Love Our Newcastle Herald Facebook page, which now has more than 1,000 supporters, and the Twitter account @savenewcherald.
The Fairfax statement in full:
Fairfax Media has an obligation to consult and is continuing consultation with the MEAA about the Illawarra and Newcastle editorial production proposal. We understand the MEAA will be putting a proposal to us, which we will consider on its merits when we get it.
The extension of the consultation period was agreed to by management to allow employees at Newcastle and Illawarra to be updated about today’s discussions.
Under the company proposal, the Newcastle Herald and Illawarra Mercury would still have the biggest newsrooms in their communities. No reporting or photographic positions are affected by the proposal. The local publisher, editor, reporters, photographers and illustrators remain at the heart of the newspapers. The Newcastle Herald, Illawarra Mercury and associated publications would therefore remain high-quality and continue to play a vital role in the communities they serve.
No-one likes difficult decisions but we all have to make them – and it is pretty widely understood that the media industry is in a period of immense transition,” Fairfax Regional Media CEO & Publisher Allan Browne said. “We have to do things differently in our businesses so that we remain a strong media voice and employer in regional Australia over the long term as we continue to evolve from a predominantly print business to a predominantly digital business.
Rosemarie Milsom, senior journalist at Newcastle Herald, told Mumbrella: “This is a David and Goliath battle, but there is a committed team of staff – many of whom won’t be losing their jobs – who are determined to keep production jobs in Newcastle. There are two couples, one with a six-week-old baby, who will all lose their jobs. It is personal and it is heartbreaking.”
However, she added: “I think at this stage we have a little bit of hope. At least they’re still talking.”
This is in addition to previous protests. I’m afraid that the explanation given by Fairfax is just a cover up, hoping that we, the Novocastrians, are dumb enough to accept it. NMH and Illawarra papers are local – one cannot get away from that fact. Both of these communities deserve their own paper for their own news. As suggested before “CEO’ Hywood investigate fully, how Newcastle manages financially – pass that along to those outlets who are floundering.
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Fairfax management is talking with the MEAA now, but Hywood and his stooges didn’t have the guts to talk to the union before their secret move to send production off to a second-rate sweatshop in New Zealand.
Hywood and his yes-men spout platitudes about transforming the business, but moral courage appears to be in short supply at management level.
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The elephant in the room is that print journos and soft-porn superstars are the wrong people to be managing Fairfax into the 21st century.
Maybe Rinehart IS what’s needed if she can recognise how to hire the right people to take Fairfax digital (and stay the hell out of editorial). Successful new media start-ups would kill to have the resources of a billion dollar media company, and yet they are competing and winning on a shoe-string…
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