Fairfax Media staff pass no-confidence motion in management but won’t strike over 30 redundancies
Staff at Fairfax Media’s The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review have passed a no-confidence motion in Fairfax management during a stop-work meeting this morning.
Fairfax staff in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and the state bureau held stop-work meetings this morning in protest of up to 30 journalists being made forcibly redundant after the newspaper publisher failed to attract enough voluntary redundancies.
While staff will not take industrial action in protest of the cuts, Mumbrella understands a no confidence motion was passed as staff at the SMH and the AFR believe the company’s management has a cost-cutting strategy for the newspaper publisher and not a revenue strategy.
It sounds more like management have passed a no-confidence motion in their staff.
If you knew the dedication and skill of those going you might rethink that silly statement. This is all about getting rid of the highest paid on staff – not a lack of confidence in their ability. Sheesh
How is this a “silly statement”, Belinda? If an illustrator is among “the highest paid on staff” then that’s one sign that Fairfax staffing really DOES need an overhaul. Two mid-grade journalists would add much more value to Fairfax than an illustrator who, no matter how skilled, basically creates pretty pictures to go with articles. But people don’t buy SMH, Age et al for his drawings, they buy for the stories.
Jack this I know is true. Rocco is not the the highest paid artist. Two journalists definitely do not equal his income. By checking out the his digital material it is obvious by the tens of thousand views the public is attracted to his work.
Jack I have never met you and would never countenance commenting on your life nor tainting your reputation. I accept though that there people like yourself who do not offer the same courtesy to others.
Paul Sheehan should have been walked out months ago over his “Middle Eastern Gang Rape” story, it’s a slap in the face for journalists to not only see him collecting full pay while on leave but for him to get a juicy redundancy payout.
On the other hand, illustrator Rocco Fazzari being let go is just a sign of the times. Such artists are not ‘core’ to the news or to newspapers today, and with all respect to Fazzari you only need to read comments from other Fairfax journalists on his Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/profil.....9167650791) saying that people will stop buying the SMH because his work is no longer printed etc, to see how out of touch so many journalists are with reality and how many of them live in their own little world.
AA: Not at all. They love their staff. They just love their fat salaries more (and they only have one idea: watch revenue fall, cut staff).
Hywood is clearly the next option for cost reduction.
Jack your negative commentary about staff is noted.