Journalists at Fairfax newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have voted to strike until Monday, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) says.
Fairfax Media announced earlier this week it would cut 550 jobs in Australia and New Zealand.
The job cuts, which affect five percent of the Fairfax workforce, are being made under a new business improvement program to save costs, the company said on Tuesday.
Staff from both papers met this afternoon and voted in favour of immediate strike action.
Senior Age journalist Michael Bachelard said staff at the Melbourne broadsheet were angry about the cuts and long-term pay negotiations.
"This was a motion that arose spontaneously from the floor of the meeting because people are angry at the way the company has treated them both in terms of Enterprise Agreement negotiations and also the redundancy announcements," Mr Bachelard said.
"Age staff are passionate about their masthead and their readers, and are disappointed that the managers of the company appear willing to sacrifice quality journalism for the sake of the bottom line."
Fairfax management would not comment on the industrial action, except to say its papers would still come out tomorrow.
"We can confirm that Fairfax newspapers will be published tomorrow as normal," a spokeswoman for Fairfax in Sydney said this afternoon.
However, she would not comment on whether papers would be published over the weekend.
