As ABC staff filed back into work at 11am on Thursday morning, after taking the first strike action at the broadcaster in 20 years, the chatter was about just how effective the last 24 hours were.
Lamestream reported yesterday that ABC bosses were clearly underprepared for the scale of the strike, which shut down TV and radio broadcasts, and brought the ABC News website to a standstill, pushing managers to rely heavily on wire stories and reporting from a handful of journalists around the country who refused to strike.
There were also a number of high profile ABC journalists who didn’t strike, and who management drew upon to report news headlines and write stories for the website. These journalists have drawn particular ire from striking staff, both because by continuing to work they are undermining the purpose of the strike which is to shut down the broadcaster and because they tend to be on much higher salaries than those taking industrial action.
On Wednesday afternoon, rumours began to circulate among staff on strike that the former presenter of AM on ABC radio, Sabra Lane, was being drafted in by management to read news headlines on local radio. Lane quit her role at AM at the end of last year, and was on extended leave from the ABC. But on Thursday morning, she was reading news headlines on local ABC radio and making awkward banter with the fill-in host, ABC Sydney manager Nick Lowther.
