Widespread support across unions with regulation of AI being a unifying factor- BUT leverage is limited. \
Verma 6/8 (Pranshu Verma is a reporter on The Washington Post's technology team, where he covers the innovations fueling tomorrow and the dark side of technology. Before joining The Post in 2022, Verma covered technology at the Boston Globe. Before that, he covered diplomacy and transportation at the New York Times as a reporting fellow in D.C. He started his career in journalism at the Philadelphia Inquirer as a reporting fellow covering prisons and New Jersey politics. Verma is a graduate of Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.) “From airlines to Hollywood, workers are fighting to keep AI at bay” June 8, 2023 https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/08/labor-unions-fight-ai/
While artificial intelligence is rapidly improving and some economists the technology will put millions of workers out of jobs, labor unions are fighting against it. In bargaining sessions, AI is increasingly becoming a central sticking point, with organizers making the case that companies are shortsighted to replace knowledge workers with technology that can’t match human creativity and is riddled with errors and bias.
Some unions have recently made strides, such as Hollywood directors who struck a Saturday with motion picture studios and garnered promises that they “will not be replaced” by artificial intelligence. It was one of the first concessions organized labor has gotten regarding AI protections.
“Our industry is rapidly changing,” Lesli Linka Glatter, president of the Directors Guild of America, said Tuesday, after the guild’s board unanimously approved the tentative deal. “This agreement is what we need to adapt to those changes.”
But it will be a far messier and longer fight for other industries, according to economists. Union membership is , corporations hold more sway in bargaining fights and labor unions must find messaging that appeals to cost-cutting leaders, these experts added. These tugs of war over the technology offer an early glimpse into how effective organized labor will be in protecting workers.
Daron Acemoglu, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said there’s no reason to trust that executives alone will make the right decisions regarding how AI might be used. “You need workers’ voices,” he said.
In fact, the writers’ guild wasn’t always worried about AI, said a member who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. At a pre-strike meeting at the Hollywood Palladium theater in February, people laughed as AI was brought up in a Q&A session, the member said.
Five or six weeks later, the narrative had changed. News stories, public speeches and protest signs were all about AI. Talking about the labor struggle in terms of automation made it more accessible to the public, the member said.
Months later, Writers Guild of America representatives said the studios even engage on AI during negotiations, and that’s how the union knew it would be a big deal. But it’s hard to determine how much of a present threat it is, the member said. “Maybe they are ready to replace us all,” the member said, while adding that AI has become a unifying aspect to the strike.
The WGA pointed to a tweet saying it proposed to regulate AI and acknowledged it had meetings to discuss the bargaining agreement.