Posts tagged media
How AI Is Impacting Labor Relations—and Why Employers Need to Pay Attention
October 25, 2024 // One key takeaway from the DOL guidelines is the importance of worker involvement. In unionized workplaces, rolling out AI without worker input is risky. Unions are already pushing back, trying to ensure that AI doesn’t replace jobs or erode working conditions. Employers should expect collective bargaining proposals that set clear parameters around AI usage, from performance monitoring to task automation. Industries like entertainment are leading the charge, with unions such as SAG-AFTRA and the WGA negotiating limits on AI-generated scripts and digital replicas. At ports, the International Longshoremen’s Association is resisting fully automated systems. These are clear signs that AI’s impact on labor is at the top of many unions’ minds.
The small pro-labor news site that has the Biden White House’s ear
October 3, 2023 // Ahead of the announcement that Biden would join the striking workers. More Perfect Union’s executive director, Faiz Shakir, helped connect the White House and United Auto Workers leaders, smoothing the way for Biden to address a crowd of striking workers. “We had a number of conversations with the White House,” Shakir, a former campaign manager for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said of the planning for the Biden trip. “We’re also on the ground covering UAW and building relationships there. So that’s where we gave a little bit of help on the sidelines.” With a tone that is often serious but always conversational, More Perfect Union highlights the struggles of workers from disparate sectors; one post on social media might be about striking railway workers, while the next might be about exploitation women face in the modeling industry. It also dabbles in memes, jokes and commentary familiar to anyone who spends time online.
Savannah Morning News staff vote against unionizing, amid employee departures at Gannett-owned paper
August 11, 2023 // A unionization effort at the Savannah Morning News has failed, after staff at the Gannett-owned newspaper on Wednesday voted 3-0 against organizing under the journalism labor union NewsGuild. The decision came two months after a group of eight reporters at the daily publication announced their intent to unionize, calling on Gannett to provide better pay and working conditions. But since then, several of those journalists have left the Morning News, and another — environmental reporter Marisa Mecke — told GPB that she was not allowed to participate in the election because her position is funded by an external grant.
Hollywood studios racing to avoid actors’ strike at midnight
July 12, 2023 //
TECH UNIONS ON THE RISE: HOW AI IS INFLUENCING LABOR DYNAMICS
June 22, 2023 // The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is carefully watching the potential impact of AI on jobs. Despite the pervasive fear that AI could decimate many industries, the experts at BLS approach this potential threat with cautious optimism. They point out that previous predictions about technology wiping out industries have often failed. New technologies take longer than anticipated to impact job markets if they do at all significantly. Simultaneously, we’re witnessing a rise in unionization across tech companies. Traditionally, the tech industry has resisted unions, seen as relics of a bygone era. Yet, the wave of organizing overcame this resistance, breaking decades-old barriers.
The ‘Union Renaissance’ Is All PR
January 27, 2023 // The union membership rate — the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of unions — was 10.1 percent in 2022, down from 10.3 percent in 2021. . . . The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.3 million in 2022, increased by 273,000, or 1.9 percent, from 2021. However, the total number of wage and salary workers grew by 5.3 million (mostly among nonunion workers), or 3.9 percent. This disproportionately large increase in the number of total wage and salary employment compared with the increase in the number of union members led to a decrease in the union membership rate. The 2022 unionization rate (10.1 percent) is the lowest on record.
Labor Unions Are Not in a ‘Resurgence’
July 21, 2022 // Nearly all major unions in the “birthplace of organized labor” have lost a huge number of members. The Michigan Education Association is down 31%. Michigan Teamsters show a loss of 32%. The state AFSCME branch is down nearly 50%. And SEIU has lost almost two-thirds. A decline in manufacturing employment drives some of this loss. But over the past decade, several states began offering workers a choice about whether they need to join a union when their workplaces are unionized. And public sector workers in all 50 states now have this right. This choice means many are choosing to leave.
The push to unionize Philly’s food scene
May 9, 2022 // Workers used both carrot and stick to give employers an incentive to join the union. They applied pressure with “sip-ins,” in which pro-union customers would monopolize tables while lingering over coffee. The union oversaw training and discipline for its members, and also encouraged forming restaurant associations to defray costs for small business owners.
Big Labor is Targeting Banks and Credit Unions??
March 28, 2022 // Recent successful efforts by big labor to organize and unionize bank and credit union workers in New York, Washington, Oregon and California, highlight the financial industry’s vulnerability. Of course, supervisors and managers are generally prohibited from assisting and excluded from forming a labor union under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), nearly every other type of employee in the private sector is generally free to organize and bargain collectively with their employer and engage in other protected concerted activities related to terms and conditions of employment, or choose to refrain from such activities. Being simply employed by a bank, credit union or other financial institution does not prevent the worker from forming or joining a union under the NLRA.
Lib Journos Go on Strike. Here’s What They’re Demanding To Return to Work.
March 7, 2022 // Employees were also critical of management's reluctance to fund "a robust diversity hiring initiative" without first consulting the "Diversity Committee" or to allow the journalists to work from home indefinitely. The union has demanded "protection from forced relocations to the NYC office," which is fair enough because New York City is a terrible place to live. The union's suggestion that management was "offering inadequate family leave," however, received pushback even from supporters of the strike.