CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
In the face of extreme audience disruption from A.I and TikTok, one of Australia’s largest news publishers is this week facing industrial action from the nation’s last remaining journalists.
Journalists from both of Channel Nine’s masthead newspapers, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, will walk off the job for five days due to a dispute with their employers over the fact that they get paid fuck all.
With all of the organisation’s money seemingly being funnelled into the pockets of millionaire executives and reality TV producers, management were unable to resolve the issues in a meeting yesterday afternoon with the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) has said.
Union members last week voted to strike over what they say is the company’s unacceptably low offer of an annual 2.5% pay rise during negotiations on a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA).
None of this has been broadcasted to the wider public, because over 80% of the Australian media landscape is dominated by both Nine Newspapers and the equally anti-unions Murdoch press.
In a clever play by the disgruntled journos, this strike will directly affect Nine’s coverage of the opening weekend of the Paris Olympics, which they paid $100m for the Australian broadcast rights, and are likely paying millions more for the stable of ex-athletes to commentate for two weeks.
The strike is including all journalists in Nine’s publishing division including the Australian Financial Review, the Brisbane Times and WAtoday as well as the SMH and the Age. Which are ironically, the same newspapers that have been utilised for the coordinated attack on Australia’s trade unions.
This follows outgoing Nine Chairman and former Coalition treasurer Peter Costello’s parting gift to the Liberals, which was to flood his syndicated news outlets with blown up reports of misconduct and bikie links within Australia’s most powerful trade union.
However, it seems the plan has backfired. After months of struggling to construct the narrative that 120,000 well-paid CFMEU members are the modern day Cosa Nostra, it seems that the underpaid journos are started to get some dangerous ideas from these very subjects.
Nine’s embarrassment will be drastically magnified when the CFMEU and other blue collar trade unions rally outside news rooms this week in support of the same journos that have been ordered to take them down.
