Newsletter item – Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), 3 February 2023
Support ABC staff as they prepare to take industrial action
Yesterday, MEAA and the CPSU – the two unions who represent staff at the ABC – lodged applications to ballot their members about taking industrial action at the national broadcaster.
This follows overwhelming rejection by members last year of an insulting and inferior offer from ABC management which has failed to address critical issues at the ABC.
The unions have applied to the Fair Work Commission to hold a ballot of members for a range of industrial action, including work restrictions, bans and strike action as a final resort. Emergency broadcasts would be exempt from any industrial action.
ABC staff believe industrial action is the only way to force ABC management back to the bargaining table after months of stalling.
Will you stand with ABC staff in fighting for change?
Since union members rejected the ABC’s offer last year, management has refused to engage with members around key issues of a fair pay rise that keeps pace with cost of living, removing impediments to career progression for staff wherever they are based, and real action to increase gender and racial diversity and end pay inequity.
The past few years have shown just how important the accurate and reliable reporting of ABC news staff is. We can’t let this be jeopardised by tight-fisted management.
The ABC has been running on a business model of overwork, underpay and systemic inequality for a long time, but now there is an opportunity for a fresh approach by management under a government that has already provided more funding for the ABC after years of cuts.
We deserve an ABC that runs properly, with diverse storytellers and sustainable careers for the people who bring it to us.
