Ben Willee, Executive Director of Media and Data at Spinach Advertising, talks to James Willis on Money News (3AW, 2GB, 4BC, 6PR) about the Journalists strike at the ABC.
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James Willis (Host)I don’t quite understand that because from what I’ve seen in the deal, uh, CPI is running pretty close to what the ABC management are offering this year at least, and of course, we don’t know the impact of other factors. But as we say, the ABC’s striking today. Ben Willee is the executive director of Media and Data for Spinach Advertising. He’s on the line to break this down for us tonight. G’day, Ben.
Ben WilleeG’day, James. Great to be here.
James Willis (Host)A very unique dispute, this one, mate. We’ve always got unions particularly in the media. I mean, there’s plenty of union members in the media, but I don’t think we’ve seen a dispute like this for quite some time.
Ben WilleeNo, and in classic fashion, you know, the ABC’s managed to turn an internal dispute into a national conversation. And depending on your point of view, that’s exactly the point or entirely the problem.
James Willis (Host)Uh, let’s run through the nuts and the bolts of this, Ben. What was the offer that ABC staff and the unions rejected?
Ben WilleeWell, there’s three parts to it. The first part is pay, and they rejected a ten percent pay increase over three years. Part two is job security and workloads. They argue that they’re facing growing work-workloads and diminishing stability. And the third part is pretty interesting. It’s AI and future-proofing, and the staff want firm rules around the use of artificial intelligence to, quote, “protect editorial integrity and employee positions.”
James Willis (Host)Yeah, and there was also a thousand dollar sign-on bonus to each staff member that has been turned down. Um, when this sort of thing happens, I mean, because this is a unique case, it’s taxpayers’ money. The ABC’s only got a certain budget at play. How do you think this will play out? Is this gonna be enough for the ABC management just to sort of give ground, or are we gonna be on strike for a number of days, do you think?
Ben WilleeWell, at the moment they’ve said it’s a twenty-four-hour strike. So they’ve said starting at eleven AM Wednesday running to eleven AM Thursday. But what I think’s interesting is you know, there’s always a risk that the viewers hear the new programming, think of it as less of a disruption and more of a brief improvement. So, I mean, the ABC’s only got a one point one billion dollar annual taxpayer-funded budget-so they’re very limited in what they can offer journalists.
James Willis (Host)I don’t know there’s plenty of parts of the economy that haven’t had a pay rise for quite some time, so ten percent over three years with a one thousand dollar sign-on bonus, it’s pretty good. I reckon that’s a pretty good deal. What do you make of using on-air content, radio and TV, to spruik these messages against management? What do you make of that approach?
Ben WilleeWell I think it’s probably not the right thing to do. I think they can they can say that they’re doing it, but it would be totally inappropriate for them to use that time to argue their cause. And I don’t think we’ve heard a lot of that. I think most of what we’ve heard, and you played the little clip earlier, has just been for them to say why they won’t be on for the next day. But it’s a very dangerous tactic ’cause it can really put people off who you know, in Australia at the moment are suffering under inflation, ridiculous increases in petrol, cost of living. It’s not easy to be an Aussie family out there at the moment, that’s for sure.
James Willis (Host)Absolutely. Ben, very well explained. We appreciate your time. Thank you.
Ben WilleeThanks for having me.
James Willis (Host)That’s Ben Willee, the executive director of Media and Data for Spinach Advertising.
