Fairfax Media metro journalists strike in solidarity

Journalists at all major metro Fairfax publications have walked out in ­solidarity with those at the SMH and The Age.

Editorial staff from The Age rally outside the newspaper’s Melbourne headquarters yesterday.

Journalists at all major metro Fairfax Media publications, including editorial staff at the company’s lucrative real estate website ­Domain, have walked out in ­solidarity with journalists at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Fairfax Media’s abrupt decision to cut the equivalent of 120 fulltime editorial jobs from its two biggest newspapers sparked industrial action across the company until Monday. Staff at WA Today in Perth went out on strike for the first time in its history, as did staff at the Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald, the Illawarra Mercury and Brisbane Times.

The lucrative weekend newspapers for the company have been stripped as big-name contracted columnists including Peter FitzSimons and Annabel Crabb have not filed their weekend pieces in solidarity with striking journalists.

At rallies in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra yesterday politicians, including NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley, expressed fears about the potential closure of the newspapers.

“That’s not good for democracy,” Mr Foley said outside The Sydney Morning Herald headquarters in Sydney before noting the “forensic work” of SMH journalists had forced the ALP to improve its operations.

The editorial house committees at the SMH and The Age will meet management for consultations, and journalists will return to work, on Monday.

Marcus Strom, SMH deputy news editor and joint chair of the union house committee, said: “We are happy to consult on costs but not on journalism.” Fairfax said it would dock the pay of journalists who had taken “unlawful” industrial action.

The announcement appears to have split corporate and editorial management, with one editorial director telling staff in Sydney he was “shocked” by the severity of the cuts. But The Weekend Australian understands some new senior editorial appointees signed off on new budgets two weeks ago.

It is not known whether the job losses were revealed to the incoming SMH editor Judith Whelan, and the anticipated next editor of The Age, Mark Forbes.