Australia's public broadcaster ABC hit by staff walkout
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Staff of Australia’s national broadcaster ABC walk out of their office in the press gallery of Parliament House as they begin a national strike action in Canberra on March 25.
PHOTO: AFP
SYDNEY - Hundreds of journalists went on strike on March 25 at Australia’s main public broadcaster, demanding better pay and protections to stop artificial intelligence taking their jobs.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation was forced to replace live programming with pre-recorded shows after more than 2,000 journalists and staff called a 24-hour strike.
It is the first major strike to hit the broadcaster in around 20 years.
“ABC staff don’t want to strike, they want to do their jobs,” the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said in a statement.
“They want fair pay, secure work, and guardrails around the use of technologies like AI to protect editorial integrity and public trust,” the union added.
Union members voted in March to reject a pay offer they said would fall below inflation.
Falling advertising revenues and the rise of social media have fuelled repeated rounds of job cuts across Australia’s media. AFP
