More than a hundred unionised staff at Stuff have gone on strike, saying “journalists have taken hit after hit” of “insulting” pay offers at the media company.
Members of union E tū walked off the job at 3pm to join picket lines planned at Stuff’s Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Hamilton newsrooms.
The move represented the most recent low point between the publisher of the country’s largest news website and its unionised journalists.
E tū director Michael Wood told 1News that around 160 staff are on strike today, representing “the overwhelming majority of working journalists”.
Auckland-based Stuff journalist and union delegate Sapeer Mayron said the strike action was about “years of being undervalued”.
“Going on strike today comes after months of asking this company to live up to its reputation in Aotearoa’s eyes, and in the eyes of its staff, each of whom become more disillusioned every day as our leaders deny us the decent wages and conditions we deserve,” she said in a media release.
“Stuff has shown its employees over and over again that it thinks we are replaceable and not worth investing in with decent wages and working conditions. And yet we stay, because we believe in the work and care about the communities we report in.
“But after years of miserly increases, with our pay going backwards in real terms – some years with no increases at all – we simply can’t afford to keep working here unless Stuff pays us properly.
“That means more than CPI, to catch up on all those years of falling behind.”
A Stuff spokesperson accused the union of “untruths” and said, “since Covid, we have given our staff pay rises every year, which are in line with the market”.
Stuff hits back after union delegate criticises CEO
E tū union delegates took particular aim at chief executive Sinead Boucher, accusing her of taking a “secret payday from selling a share of the business to Trade Me”.
Wellington-based journalist and E tū delegate Tom Hunt said the company — which recently sold 50% of its digital division to Trade Me — was showing contempt for its staff.
“Stuff journalists have taken hit after hit to get Sinead Boucher’s company through hard times. We accepted no increases during Covid and effectively nothing last year, because we believed the company when it told us times were tough,” he said in a statement.
“To now be offered an insulting pay rise, and to see the company trying to split us into different collective agreements, is disgraceful.
“It shows they plan to keep screwing us for years to come. This is from a company that boasts about being a wonderful corporate citizen, all while our owner takes a secret payday from selling a share of the business to Trade Me. The hypocrisy is staggering.”
A spokesperson for Stuff said in response: “While we do not comment on our ongoing negotiations with E tū due to good faith and confidentiality commitments, we have plans in place to ensure our audiences and commercial partners remain unaffected.
“The statement from E tū contains a number of deliberate untruths.
“Since Covid, we have given our staff pay rises every year which are in line with the market, there has been no ‘secret payday’ and no one has been ‘screwed’.
“It is disappointing to see two journalists mischaracterise the issues in this manner.”
The union’s statement referenced the sale of half of Stuff Digital to Trade Me earlier this year. The value of the 50% stake acquired was not publicly disclosed at the time.
The privately-held company’s digital arm published the Stuff.co.nz website and produced the nightly television bulletin ThreeNews, which replaced Newshub on TV3 last year.
The Trade Me deal excluded the Stuff Group’s Masthead Publishing business, which included newspaper titles The Post, The Press, the Sunday Star Times and several magazine lines. It also excluded the group’s events and Neighbourly businesses.