Fairfax printers strike as new management arrives

The stop work, which lasted from Thursday night until 2am the following day, disrupted the distribution of Fairfax papers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian Financial Review in rural areas of NSW. It came as Brian McCarthy, Deputy CEO of Fairfax Media, assumes control of newspaper management in the newly enlarged media giant.

McCarthy, formerly CEO and MD of Rural Press, comes with a reputation of being a harder nut to crack than previous Fairfax management and is unlikely to look kindly on the reported eight per cent pay rise sought by the printers. The Chullora workers are already some of the highest paid in the industry, many on six-figure wages, significantly higher than similar operators in Rural Press.

The strike is the second in as many weeks and is taken by industry observers as pre-emptive action against any idea by management to seek economies by levelling wages across the company. The merger delivers much greater production flexibility to management in terms of press power if it decides to take a hard line.

Both parties are keeping quiet on the incidents. Messages were left with a spokesman from the AMW Print Division, but he did not return calls.

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