Journalists at Nine Entertainment, on a five day strike over a pay dispute, are urging readers not to read online or buy the hard copy newspapers of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday.
"Don’t cross the virtual picket line," said the union, the MEAA (Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance).
"That means do not click on any articles from Nine mastheads."
The journalist also ask that readers sign share a petition to show Nine management that "audiences stand with journalists in demanding quality jobs for quality journalism".
The journalist seek a better than CPI pay rise, protections against AI stealing their work, better conditions for freelancers and more diverse newsrooms.
The strike action started on Friday, the same day as the start of the Paris Olympics, and the union has called out the CEO, Mike Sneesby, for carrying the Olympic torch in a relay and attending the games with his family.
"I'm not on a holiday," Sneesby said.
The MEAA has urged the senior executive team at Nine, including Sneesby, to forgo executive bonuses and for those savings to be used to deliver real wage increases.
"Journalists, as workers on the frontline, are asking for wages to be kept up with the cost-of-living pressures after they volunteered to forego a mandated pay rise during the COVID pandemic," said the MEAA.
"Journalists have told stories to management about why a fair pay rise would make a difference to their lives. Management has responded with a sub-standard pay offer of 3.5%. Is this how low a regard management has for quality journalism?
"In the midst of enterprise bargaining, management has made an unprecedented announcement of a major redundancy round which disproportionately targets the most unionised arm of Nine Entertainment Company, its publishing division."
This comes against the background of job cuts at Nine, multi-million dollar pay outs to misbehaving senior executives, and the purchase of the broadcast rights to the Olympics for a reported $100 million.
Nine, with rights to TV, streaming, audio and digital at the the Olympic and Paralympic Games, says it has written $135 million of advertising revenue.
The media group is taking 123 staff to Paris to cover broadcast production, for 5000 hours of programming.
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