My MEAA Story: Jarni Blakkarly

Investigative journalist Jarni Blakkarly explains why he is a MEAA member.

I’ve been a MEAA member ever since I studied journalism at university after high school. I come from a family of proud union members and always understood the value and purpose of being in a union — though it was my personal experience in the workplace, not Billy Bragg songs, that made me a more active union member later in life.

I chose journalism as a career because I always loved writing and storytelling and growing up I had an insatiable interest in politics and non-fiction stories.

After studying journalism at university I joined SBS News as a cadet where I was promoted and gained many incredible opportunities. I got to travel over to Malaysia to interview the soon-to-be Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and travel to the remote jungles to report on logging of native Indigenous tribal lands.

It was a whirlwind couple of years that came with a lot of stress and challenges, including to my mental health, which was ultimately the reason I left the organisation.

When things are hard, you need somebody in your corner. And at times in the workplace, the only person in your corner is the union. After a manic episode, of what I now know to be my bipolar, which ended in my hospitalisation, SBS News didn’t want to support my return to work, they wanted me gone for “breach of social media guidelines” due to some Tweets I had sent out during my episode.

MEAA had my back the whole way, providing me with industrial and legal support to fight back against my employer and win the best possible outcome for me at the time. I will be forever grateful for the union’s support in that difficult time and wanting to give back was the reason I ran for Federal Council.

I’ve also had experience of being in a workplace when a round of redundancies was incredibly poorly managed and executed and I have seen how by getting together collectively to demand longer consultation, we were able to obtain a fairer process from management for the staff impacted.

To anyone considering joining the union I would say you never know when you’re going to need a helping hand, you never know when you are going to need support in the workplace.

And even if the day you need support never comes, the least you can do for your colleagues and comrades is extend that hand to them.