Don’t torch journalism
Update, July 31: Journalists at Nine Publishing have voted to accept an improved offer from management and have suspended any further industrial action. Read more >>
Journalists at Nine Publishing (The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday) are being asked to do more for less.
They are taking a stand for newsrooms that reflect the diversity of the communities they are reporting for, for ethical and transparent use of Artificial Intelligence, for a fair deal for freelance contributors, and for better wages.
Management has shown time after time that they care more about shareholder profits than about the people they employ.
Journalists, as workers on the frontline, are asking for wages to be kept up with the cost-of-living pressures after they volunteered to forego a mandated payrise during the COVID pandemic. Journalists have told stories to management about why a fair pay rise would make a difference to their lives. Management has responded with a sub-standard pay offer of 3.5%. Is this how low a regard management has for quality journalism?
In the midst of enterprise bargaining, management has made an unprecedented announcement of a major redundancy round which disproportionately targets the most unionised arm of Nine Entertainment Company, its publishing division. With 70-90 jobs proposed to be axed at Nine Publishing, these cuts will have a detrimental impact on the newsrooms.
It doesn’t stop there. Journalists’ working conditions are intrinsically linked to their ability to perform their role of holding power to account. Attacks on journalists is an attack on the public’s right to know the truth.
Journalists are taking industrial action to fight for legally binding consultation on the impact of Artificial Intelligence. This is integral to countering the dissemination of misinformation through AI.
And journalists are calling for management to continually report on diversity audits and pay gap data in their workplace. This will allow staff to hold management accountable to work towards equitable wages.
As members of the public, we must support workers taking action for better pay and conditions, but also in the face of the rapidly changing landscape for our right to factual journalism.
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Sign the petition
2226 have signed
To the Chair and Board of Nine Entertainment Company,
Union members at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday are taking industrial action. As community members we stand with them and demand management agrees to staff’s demands for:
- We call on Nine Entertainment Company to act in the best interests of readers and our right to quality journalism.
- We urge the senior executive team at Nine, including managing director Mike Sneesby, to forgo all executive bonuses and for those savings to be used to deliver real wage increases.
- We trust the work of your journalists and want to ensure there is transparency about the use of Artificial Intelligence.
- We know that to build readership you must commit to newsrooms that are representative of the communities they serve.
- We call on Nine to act in the best interests of readers and to mitigate the job cuts to the newsrooms so they are able to continue to inform the public.
- In an industry rife with insecurity, we call on Nine to negotiate a fair deal for freelance contributors with key conditions including annual increases that keep up with the cost of living.
As members of the public, we are deeply concerned about the future of these mastheads and call on management to urgently meet the journalists’ demands and provide sustainable and secure jobs.
This campaign has now ended. Thank you to everyone who signed the petition.
You can still support the journalists who went on strike by making a donation to the solidarity hardship fund.
MEAA Media House Committees around Australia have posted messages of support for journalists at Nine Publishing who began a five-day strike on Friday, July 26.
ABC National House Committee
The ABC MEAA House Committee stands with our colleagues at Nine Publishing as they start five days of protected stop work action over its Enterprise Bargaining Agreement dispute.
It comes at a hard time for Nine Publishing journalists, whose newsrooms have once again been decimated with the company’s recent announcement that up to 90 jobs will be cut across its workforce.
About 250 roles have been cut at major Australian publishing companies in recent months which is deeply concerning for all journalists and the public.
Without a strong and effective media communities will be less informed, and the powerful will not be held to account.
We support MEAA members’ right to bargain for fair wages and conditions in line with the skill, commitment and dedication required as a media worker.
We call on Nine Publishing to negotiate with its staff to reach a fair outcome and for the government to hear the concerns of the industry around the decline in journalism across the country.
AAP House Committee
Recent weeks for our industry have been devastating.
At Nine Publishing, facing 90 job losses and tough pay negotiations, our colleagues have voted to go on strike for five days from Friday. This decision would not have been taken lightly.
Across the country, newsrooms are being hit with cuts to journalist numbers, publications are closing and others are reducing publication days.
As AAP’s union delegates we stand in solidarity with our Nine colleagues and those at outlets also fighting for better pay and conditions and against unrelenting redundancies.
Guardian Australia House Committee
Guardian Australia’s MEAA House Committee stands in solidarity with our colleagues at The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday, who are taking industrial action in pursuit of fairer pay, secure jobs, newsroom diversity, protections around AI, better rights for freelancers, and to protect journalism.
It comes on the heels of Nine management announcing it would disproportionately target the publishing division of the business for a swathe of redundancies, despite its newsrooms maintaining profitability in a tough economic climate.
Journalists have worked hard through a global pandemic and a cost of living crisis, in an industry that it increasingly volatile. It is irresponsible and disrespectful to punish the very people that the company relies on for its success in pursuit of shareholder profits. We call on Nine’s management to return to the bargaining table with a fair and reasonable offer that respects the skill and experience of its staff.
MEAA WA Branch Council
The members of the WA branch of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance offer their support and solidarity to the local staff of Nine Publishing, who will be taking industrial action from Friday in their pursuit of a fair and workable enterprise bargaining agreement.
Journalists from WAToday in Perth will join their colleagues at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review and Brisbane Times in walking off the job – after more than 90 per cent of staff agreed to industrial action.
Social media posts have already garnered significant online support for the action – and staff across the country will be out on Friday and over the weekend and personally calling for the public to do the same.
Members of the MEAA WA branch will join their fellow members to voice their support for their action of last-resort – which came after the company’s announcement during negotiations that 90 jobs would be cut from the mastheads.
“Strike action truly is the last resort any journalist would want to have to take,” said MEAA WA President Tim Clarke.
“Therefore the staff at WAToday, like their colleagues nationwide, must feel they only have one option left – which is a position no journalist should ever be put in.
“It must be hoped that this action will mean the bosses at Nine truly begin to listen to their workers, and understand they are by far the most valuable asset they have.
“Which should be reflected in any offer that is put forward to them.”
