Nine journalists moving to strike ahead of job cuts and Olympics
Nine journalists are moving closer to a strike after pay talks were met with a paltry increase, and the publishing division remains the target of up to 90 job cuts.
According to Capital Brief, last Thursday’s talks were led by Nine Publishing’s managing director Tory Maguire and people and culture boss, Michael Trafford, and stalled not far from where they started in mid-March.]
UPDATE: Pedestrian CEO exits as Nine announces more publishing staff changes
Staffers across the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times, and WAtoday, were offered a conditional 3% pay rise, as long as they agreed to a combined pay grading system for all staffers across the publishing division.
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance managed to secure a 3.5% increase for News Corp staffers last month, and pointed out to its Nine members that both these figures fall below the 4% national rise in inflation over the past year.
MEAA’s first proposal was made in March, asking for a three-year deal that would see publishing staff given an 8% pay increase in the first year, with two subsequent 6% bumps. These were rebuffed by Nine management at the time, who offered 2.5% increases each year, for three years.
The union has also commenced preparations for a protected action ballot, which will close on July 19, and see members voting on the possibility of strike action. This would mark the first walk-out by the newspaper staff since 2017,
With the Olympics Games set to start a week after that ballot deadline, the timing isn’t ideal for Nine, which has already announced the team of 18 journalists set to cover the Games for the network, including the Herald and Age chief reporters Jordan Baker and Chip Le Grand, Europe correspondent Rob Harris, sport editors Chloe Saltau and Ian Fuge, and Eddie Jim, the Walkley portrait photographer of the year.
MEAA members at Nine Publishing have already passed a motion of no confidence in CEO Mike Sneesby, after the chief announced between 70 and 90 of the planned 200 job cuts will come from the publishing division.
Sneesby said the focus on the publishing division was “to offset the loss of revenue from the Meta deal and challenges in the advertising market,” despite these being conditions felt by the entire business, not just publishing.
The staff motion, passed on the day Sneesby made the cuts, pointed this out:
“We demand an explanation from the company about why the publishing division appears to have been disproportionately targeted for job losses, given the recent strong financial performance by the mastheads in a particularly difficult time for all print outlets, and given the fact that the Meta money was spent across the company, rather than just on the mastheads.”
The motion also suggested revenge might be a factor, pointing to “the recent poor behaviour and cultural issues in other parts of the company, which has been widely reported, and the role that the independent reporting of the publishing division has played in upholding the reputation of the company’s news division”, as a potential reason for journalists being targeted in these cuts by Nine.
Tory Maguire also expressed dismay when addressing her staffers, noting: “This is the first time we have had to take headcount out of editorial since 2017, which is an extraordinary anomaly when you look at other news publishers around the country and the rest of the world.”
It’s worth noting the last union staff walkout occurred in 2017, after Fairfax announced 150 redundancies.
Mumbrella has contacted the MEAA for comment. Nine declined to comment on the possible strike action.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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topics
Australian Financial Review
Brisbane Times
Mike Sneesby
Nine
Olympics Games
Paris 2024
Sydney Morning Herald
The Age
Tory Maguire
WAToday
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