Inside Fairfax

Fairfax staff this morning voted to return to work following yesterday’s Australian Industrial Relations Commission decision.
A meeting of staff passed the following resolution:

“That the staff of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun Herald vote to return to work, authorising its house committee to resume enterprise agreement negotiations with the company and reiterating its unified demand for an across the board pay increase of four per cent a year for three years, and an increase to superannuation of two per cent over the life of the agreement.”

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission today has made orders stopping industrial action at Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Members employed at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun-Herald must return to work at the start of their regular shift on 16 December 2005 and must not take any industrial action until 15 January 2006.

Members employed by the company on other titles in Sydney (AFR and BRW), Melbourne (The Age, Sunday Age, AFR and BRW) and their Canberra bureaux must not take any industrial action . Orders were NOT made against members at the Newcastle Herald or the Illawarra Mercury. Sydney members should attend a pre-return union meeting at 9.30am Friday 16 December at level 18, Darling Park to hear a report. The full AIRC orders can be found here.

The Alliance and Fairfax are going to court today around 1pm.

Fairfax journalist who can to come should go to 80 William Street around 12.30pm so that the Alliance can have a presence in court.

Below is David Kirk’s email to staff about the “vision”. Notice how the lead is buried. The real story is that Alan Revell, ex-SMH editor turned level 19 executive, is leaving the company. But you’d have to read down to the very last line to clock that fact.

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This is an AAP story about the strike at Fairfax. Notice that today’s paper did not mention the strike. This must be the first time in a very long time - maybe first ever - that the paper has not informed its readers about industrial action affecting the paper. How’s that for honesty?

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Journalists working for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald have walked off the job today after rejecting a sub-standard offer from management.

Journalists were seeking to renegotiate their award provisions ahead of the new industrial relations laws which come into effect next year.

But talks broke down when management refused to guarantee pay increases for all journalists that took into account the prevailing inflation rate of 3 to 4 per cent.

Journalists will meet again on Friday afernoon to review the situation - unless the company changes its tune.

Journalists from The Age, The Sunday Age and The Australian Financial Review will meet to consider similar action over the next few days.

Stay tuned for more developments. This website will be updated to keep journalists and readers informed.

Quality is the key to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age’s survival. Quality is their foundation - for readers and advertisers. Whatever new technology may bring, broadsheet newspapers will not last unless they are excellent.

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Sorry about the lack of activity. We’re back in action.

Industrial action is under way at 13 Fairfax-owned newspapers in New Zealand.

About 75 journalists and circulation workers at community newspapers in Auckland and Wellington are taking the action after rejecting the company’s 3.5 per cent pay offer.

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Since the launch of The Guide, Good Living and Metro in the Herald in the early ’80s the success of sections has gone ahead in leaps and bounds.
Today there are 16 sections and, on average, at least one supplement a week, plus occasional specials such as The Shed, Scope and Eco. They drive circulation and revenue for the whole paper but this is threatened by the proposed redundancies.
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