‘Fight will continue’: ABC staff broadcast jobs warning
Australians could face further local news and program cuts if the national broadcaster’s management cannot reach a resolution with striking workers.
For the first time in two decades, ABC workers went on strike for 24 hours from 11am (AEDT) on Wednesday to press for better pay and working conditions.
Workers are warning of further industrial action if their demands are not met.
As its staff left jobs, the ABC was forced to broadcast and rebroadcast content from the BBC and broadcast members’ statements in federal parliament to fill the void.
Youth broadcaster Triple J switched to a pre-prepared music playlist as staff headed out.
Nightly news bulletins and flagship current affairs program 7.30 were not broadcast on Wednesday evening and ABC News Breakfast will not be broadcast on Thursday morning, as well as local breakfast and morning radio programmes.
Thousands of striking journalists, camera operators, technicians and other staff marched outside more than 60 ABC offices, including in Melbourne and Sydney.
It was a strange feeling for Victorian state political reporter Richard Willingham, who said workers were leaving because they felt they couldn’t get ahead or survive working as journalists.
Management had long been telling workers that everything was fine at ABC, but business reporter Dan Ziffer said they were ignoring unstable, unsafe employment conditions and stagnant wages.
“ABC seems like a bit of a shitty boyfriend,” she told the crowd in Melbourne.
Radio presenter David Marr said workers had sent a warning to management that if things did not change there would be more conflict between staff.
In his speech at the Sydney meeting, he said, “Unless this principle, reasonable wages, is addressed, there will be more problems in the future.”
Public service union organizer Sam McCrone said staff from across the country had turned up and were willing to fight after management applied for a hearing at the Fair Work Commission.
“If this change of venue does not change the administration’s attitude, this fight will continue,” he said.
ABC chief executive Hugh Marks argued that the rejected final pay offer (10 per cent over three years) was fiscally responsible and industry competitive.
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer partner Rohan Doyle said unions and workers across many sectors were showing a growing willingness to take industrial action.
“Workers are understandably pushing for pay rises to keep up with inflation but at the same time many employers are under pressure,” an expert in enterprise bargaining and industrial disputes told AAP.
With both sides of the bargaining table squeezed, Mr. Doyle expects strikes to become more common unless productivity gains can be achieved.
“There is no simple fix,” Mr. Doyle said.
The industrial action is the broadcaster’s first major strike since 2006.
More than 4,400 people work at ABC; 2000 of them are in the largest section, news.
Communications Minister Anika Wells has signaled she will not intervene to end the dispute.
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