Visiting the Picket Line
Hello, I hope that you are having a great summer! August is a phenomenal time to get some rest and family time.
This past week I visited the SAG-AFTRA picket line in Los Angeles. The actors have been on strike since May fighting for a fair deal, joining the writers who were already on strike. Actors and writers are trying to make sure they don’t get displaced by AI among other things.
I met Bryan Cranston on the picket line – he made an impassioned speech recently on behalf of the actors. But the vast majority of the people on the line and in the union are anonymous and often holding part-time jobs in order to be free to audition for roles. 87% don’t work enough to have health care through their work in the entertainment industry – which means they earn $26,000 or less.
Actors and writers are among the approximately 10% of U.S. workers who are in a union – chances are that you’re in the other 90%. The fact is that the vast majority of workers will simply feel the effects of automation without having a negotiation or conversation. They will just show up to their place of work and find a smaller team and a new process that requires fewer people.
The actors and writers are thus in an unusual position where they may be able to beat back these changes. I suggested two tacks to them. First, they should start their own studio with fair work and rules regarding AI. This would in some ways be history repeating itself, as United Artists got started similarly about 100 years ago. In this era, the studio is much easier to replace than the talent, as financing, production, marketing and distribution are easier to procure.
Second, they should head to Sacramento and agitate for rules regarding use of AI in movie and TV production. The actors and writers are much more sympathetic to politicians and the public than the studios, who have done a great job alienating people. Every major Democratic Senate candidate in CA has already sided with the actors and writers and the state legislators are 75% Democrats. California already is leading the country in privacy and data rights regulations; it could take the lead here too.
I posted a video from the picket line with a couple of the actors: one of them said, “We just want a fair deal, we’re not trying to ask for the world here . . . most of us are part-time, we have a passion that we’re working part-time on . . . we’re like the working class and something has got to give.”
A lot of Americans feel the same way.
My new book ‘the Last Election’ arrives in September – check out the first review and pre-order today! And click here to see what Forward is doing in your area.
