WHERE ARE THEY GOING

www.pitchforkmedia.com

does this mean there will be no EG tomorrow?

that's possibly already printed

does this mean there will be no EG tomorrow?

Printed last night.

where did you hear this?

We demand a source!

i just got told it was smh too, but not sure.

you'll hear it on the next ABC bulletin I imagine.

aap just said age and smh, strike until monday.

its ok, they'll just print blogs from the vine.

oh no does this mean i won't get my saturday morning fix of lifestyle, fashion and north-shore restaurant tips?

or just import more guardian content than usual. :P

HA!

Are they really suprised? Idiots.

As long as I get my Saturday giant crossword.

Andy, is your dad on strike!@?

im gonna offer my services as a scab.

coming saturday: a review of the $5 steaks at the lansdowne.

Horse, you like starting threads about The Age. Do you work there?

Sunday frontpage:

WIPEY SAYS WESTFIELD FOR NEWTOWN.

Strikes have to be approved by the arbitration commission or whoever the fuck they are these days

Pretty sure it is illegal to strike unless you're in a protected bargaining period.

a wild cat strike, they should send jeff kennett in to sort it out - he knows how to deal with this kind of situation

Geez thats crap.

AAP wrap of the day's action:

Fairfax Media dispute escalates as staff rally Fairfax Nightlead By Michelle Draper

MELBOURNE, Aug 29 AAP - An industrial dispute between Fairfax Media and its journalists escalated today, with reporters picketing and a high-profile columnist sacked.

Staff in Melbourne and NSW walked off the job yesterday over job cuts and pay negotiations.

The action follows the announcement earlier this week that Fairfax would slash 550 jobs, saving the company $50 million.

Staff at The Sydney Morning Herald, the Illawarra Mercury and the Newcastle Herald picketed outside their offices, while journalists in Melbourne held a public rally at the offices of The Age.

Additional security surrounded Fairfax's offices at Pyrmont in Sydney and at The Age building in Melbourne.

The workers, including from Fairfax's Sunday publications, the Sun-Herald and Sunday Age, are all on strike until Monday after voting to take the industrial action at stop-work meetings yesterday.

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) said editors from Rural Press titles across NSW had been ''bussed in'' to Sydney to produce the paper over the weekend.

But Fairfax Media boss David Kirk said senior staff and employees contractually exempt from industrial action were compiling the newspapers.

Mr Kirk said the strike action was unprotected and illegal and the company reserved its right to take action.

''We'll reserve our rights on all of that, and we'll make decisions as things evolve,'' he said.

A spokesman for Fairfax said the company was not planning to go to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), but the situation could change.

But the MEAA was taking Fairfax to the AIRC, after a member who works in The Sydney Morning Herald imaging department was refused entry to the building today.

And the Workplace Ombudsman was investigating potential unlawful actions from Fairfax over its decision to sack prominent SMH columnist Mike Carlton, for refusing to write his weekly column.

The strike action has so far not spread to the company's printing facilities.

Sandra Harrison, a pictorial and visual editor picketing outside the SMH offices, said she was upset there was no consultation with staff before the job cut decision, except for an email.

''That creates fear, that creates frustration, that creates anger.''

MEAA spokesman Mike Dobbie said the Melbourne rally was in protest against the ''low-cost, low-quality journalism that Fairfax management wishes to impose''.

But Mr Kirk denied the job cuts would affect the quality of the group's reporting.

Just over 100 jobs would go across Sydney and Melbourne editorial departments, but would largely affect sub-editing positions on advertising and lifestyle supplements, he said.

''Not the ... hard news, not the international news, not the business, sport, local news, that is not the part of the business that is being affected at all,'' Mr Kirk told AAP.

''It's really quite mischievous of people to say that there's going to be a decline in the quality.''

He said some reporters' jobs might go, but he would call for volunteers before reserving the right to move to compulsory redundancies.

Mr Kirk said the strike action resulted from yesterday's stop-work meeting to discuss the company's proposed new enterprise bargaining agreement.

He said Fairfax's offer to employees of salary increases of between 11 per cent and 12.25 per cent over three years, was at the upper end of salaries paid by Australian and international media companies.

Herald and Weekly Times union members sent a message of support to their Fairfax rivals today, saying professional journalism and healthy competition were essential to the interests of democracy.

The MEAA issued a letter encouraging all its members to join the striking staff in their protests.

The Australian has a good wrap-up of management fuck-ups over the last 10 years or so.

The Good Weekend is almost back to back advertising.

The Good Weekend is almost back to back advertising.

Obviously it's unaffected by the strike, then.

(More seriously, it's a preprint and would have been at the printers well before industrial action started.)

AAP sez strike's over.

No-one told Julia Gillard

yeah i thought that might be the case ben.

so yes, unaffected by the strike : )

The papers a bit thin today

I heard that industry insiders have said that all papers in print form and actual paper will be gone in 10 years. all of them.

but its still too hard to read holograms on the train.

help me obi-wan schembri, you are my only hope.

haha well by then it won't be eveyone will have some sort of holoprojector that displays images on the eyeballs from wearing glasses or a special headset or somehting..

thread-kill

um people still need to write stuff for the holo projectors etc

aap is reporting 50 editorial jobs to go today

ABOUT 50 editorial redundancies at Melbourne's The Age newspaper are expected to be announced at a meeting with staff today.

The news was aired on ABC radio today, one week after Fairfax Media staff were informed via email of 550 job losses across the company's Australian and New Zealand operations.

Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) spokesman Mike Dobbie blasted Mr Wolpe's discussion of redundancy figures on ABC radio this morning before staff had been informed of any details.

''(The company) threatens staff with lockouts, it threatens to sue them for damages, it refuses to meet them face-to-face to discuss future directions of the company, and now when people are concerned about their jobs the company informs ABC listeners before it even has the courtesy to speak to its staff.''

45 to 55, according to the Oz.

They were not informed which sections of editorial would be affected but were told the production section, which includes sub-editors, would not feel the bulk of the cuts.