Nine staff lay groundwork for strike as pay talks drag
The growing appetite for action in Nine's publishing division could see a newspaper staff strike for the first time since they walked off the job in 2017.
Unionised publishing staff at Nine Entertainment, Australia’s largest domestic media company, could take strike action within weeks as negotiations over a new pay deal slow amid planned job cuts.
Representatives of Nine’s publishing staff — including journalists at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and the Australian Financial Review — met with management for pay talks on Thursday. Nine offered a 2.5% pay increase which would maintain the division’s two separate pay schedules.
Nine’s managing director of publishing, Tory Maguire, and the division’s people and culture boss, Michael Trafford, led the talks, according to people with knowledge of the meeting. It came only days after Maguire addressed staff for the first time since chief executive Mike Sneesby announced the company would shed 200 jobs in the throes of a tough advertising market and Meta’s decision to abandon news deals.
Between 70 and 90 jobs will be cut from Nine’s publishing division, but staff have yet to hear word on how these cuts will be distributed.
