Nine boss Mike Sneesby carries Olympic flame in Paris as company goes on strike

These are the images that will pour more fuel on the raging fire between Nine boss Mike Sneesby and his revolting staff, further jeopardising the media company’s ability to deliver comprehensive Olympics coverage from Paris.

Sneesby, managing director and chief executive at Nine, enjoyed a walk and then broke into a light run through an urban French town, 19 stops on the railway outside Paris just hours after staff at Nine newspapers voted in Australia on Monday to go on strike in a bid to secure higher wages.

After being handed the torch on a roundabout Sneesby was immediately popular with the excited French locals, many from a local housing estate. He crouched down to be photographed with children and one woman even snatched a quick kiss of the torch.

Sneesby then smiled broadly as he was surrounded by tight security, including a dozen motorcycles and 20 plain clothes police officers posing as joggers when the flame was passed on.

News of the industrial action comes as teams of journalists and production staff from Nine newspapers land in Paris ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games, with the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) indicating 17 staff assigned to cover the Paris Olympics would also be looking at walking off the job.

Such a move could sink Sneesby’s grand plans for unified Olympics coverage across the company’s print and television arms, an embarrassing concept for an organisation that spent $305 million securing its first rights to an Olympics since the 2012 Games in London.

Unionised journalists at the Sydney Morning Herald voted to go on strike after a Monday meeting to discuss the impending action. A follow-up meeting is scheduled on Tuesday with management at Nine papers.

Journalists across Nine Publishing from The Age, The Australian Financial Review, Brisbane Times and WAtoday also met to finalise the first stages of the industrial action.

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) acting director Michelle Rae said last week that 90 per cent of union members at Nine’s newspapers were in favour of a range of protected action, including an indefinite strike, if management did not put a serious offer on the table.

Nine journalists’ requests for a new enterprise bargaining agreement come after the company’s announcement more than 90 jobs would be cut from its mastheads.

“Members’ anger is white hot that the job cuts will fall disproportionately upon the publishing division, which is profitable and productive,” MEAA acting director Michelle Rae said.

While negotiations between Nine Publishing and the union have been underway for several months, the MEAA have said management has refused to budge on pay rise demands and improvements to the award wage progression.

Following an announcement last month that 200 jobs would be cut across Nine, MEAA members at Nine Publishing passed a resounding vote of no confidence in Sneesby.

Originally published as Nine boss Mike Sneesby carries Olympic flame in Paris as company votes to go on strike