December 16, 2004

Oamaru Mail latest to be hit by action

The Oamaru Mail is the latest media organisation to be hit by industrial action this week.

Journalists, printers and administration staff have today launched low-level action in protest over moves by the paper’s managers to split their collective agreement.

Staff at the Christchurch Star are already taking similar action, while journalists and dispatch workers at the Northern Advocate, in Whangarei, went on strike earlier this week over a failure to settle their collective agreement.

All three papers are owned by Australian Provincial Newspapers, which is owned by Irish media magnate Tony O’Reilly.

Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national secretary Andrew Little said that members at the Oamaru Mail and Christchurch Star were now seeking a single agreement to cover both sites.

“APN managers need to understand,” he said, “that attempts to split their workforce will backfire. Trying to force journalists and printers on to separate agreements, as APN is trying to do at the Oamaru Mail and Christchurch Star, will only make them more determined to stick together.”

Meanwhile, printers at PMP Print in Christchurch, which prints magazines like House and Garden, Cuisine and TV Guide, are continuing with an overtime ban after striking earlier in the week.

ENDS

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