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Tag: Strikes

  • Can AI truly replicate the screams of a man on fire? Video game performers want their work protected

    Can AI truly replicate the screams of a man on fire? Video game performers want their work protected

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    LOS ANGELES — For hours, motion capture sensors tacked onto Noshir Dalal’s body tracked his movements as he unleashed aerial strikes, overhead blows and single-handed attacks that would later show up in a video game. He eventually swung the sledgehammer gripped in his hand so many times that he tore a tendon in his forearm. By the end of the day, he couldn’t pull the handle of his car door open.

    The physical strain this type of motion work entails, and the hours put into it, are part of the reason why he believes all video-game performers should be protected equally from the use of unregulated artificial intelligence.

    Video game performers say they fear AI could reduce or eliminate job opportunities because the technology could be used to replicate one performance into a number of other movements without their consent. That’s a concern that led the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July.

    “If motion-capture actors, video-game actors in general, only make whatever money they make that day … that can be a really slippery slope,” said Dalal, who portrayed Bode Akuna in “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.” “Instead of being like, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring you back’ … they’re just not going to bring me back at all and not tell me at all that they’re doing this. That’s why transparency and compensation are so important to us in AI protections.”

    Hollywood’s video game performers announced a work stoppage — their second in a decade — after more than 18 months of negotiations over a new interactive media agreement with game industry giants broke down over artificial intelligence protections. Members of the union have said they are not anti-AI. The performers are worried, however, the technology could provide studios with a means to displace them.

    Dalal said he took it personally when he heard that the video game companies negotiating with SAG-AFTRA over a new contract wanted to consider some movement work “data” and not performance.

    If gamers were to tally up the cut scenes they watch in a game and compare them with the hours they spend controlling characters and interacting with non-player characters, they would see that they interact with “movers’” and stunt performers’ work “way more than you interact with my work,” Dalal said.

    “They are the ones selling the world these games live in, when you’re doing combos and pulling off crazy, super cool moves using Force powers, or you’re playing Master Chief, or you’re Spider-Man swinging through the city,” he said.

    Some actors argue that AI could strip less-experienced actors of the chance to land smaller background roles, such as non-player characters, where they typically cut their teeth before landing larger jobs. The unchecked use of AI, performers say, could also lead to ethical issues if their voices or likenesses are used to create content that they do not morally agree with. That type of ethical dilemma has recently surfaced with game “mods,” in which fans alter and create new game content. Last year, voice actors spoke out against such mods in the role-playing game “Skyrim,” which used AI to generate actors’ performances and cloned their voices for pornographic content.

    In video game motion capture, actors wear special Lycra or neoprene suits with markers on them. In addition to more involved interactions, actors perform basic movements like walking, running or holding an object. Animators grab from those motion capture recordings and chain them together to respond to what someone playing the game is doing.

    “What AI is allowing game developers to do, or game studios to do, is generate a lot of those animations automatically from past recordings,” said Brian Smith, an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Department of Computer Science. “No longer do studios need to gather new recordings for every single game and every type of animation that they would like to create. They can also draw on their archive of past animation.”

    If a studio has motion capture banked from a previous game and wants to create a new character, he said, animators could use those stored recordings as training data.

    “With generative AI, you can generate new data based on that pattern of prior data,” he said.

    A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered “meaningful” AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

    “We have worked hard to deliver proposals with reasonable terms that protect the rights of performers while ensuring we can continue to use the most advanced technology to create a great gaming experience for fans,” Cooling said. “We have proposed terms that provide consent and fair compensation for anyone employed under the (contract) if an AI reproduction or digital replica of their performance is used in games.”

    The game companies offered wage increases, she said, with an initial 7% increase in scale rates and an additional 7.64% increase effective in November. That’s an increase of 14.5% over the life of the contract. The studios had also agreed to increases in per diems, payment for overnight travel and a boost in overtime rates and bonus payments, she added.

    “Our goal is to reach an agreement with the union that will end this strike,” Cooling said.

    A 2023 report on the global games market from industry tracker Newzoo predicted that video games would begin to include more AI-generated voices, similar to the voice acting in “High on Life” from Squanch Games. Game developers, the Amsterdam-based firm said, will use AI to produce unique voices, bypassing the need to source voice actors.

    “Voice actors may see fewer opportunities in the future, especially as game developers use AI to cut development costs and time,” the report said, noting that “big AAA prestige games like ‘The Last of Us’ and ‘God of War’ use motion capture and voice acting similarly to Hollywood.”

    Other games, such as “Cyberpunk 2077,” cast celebrities.

    Actor Ben Prendergast said that data points collected for motion capture don’t pick up the “essence” of someone’s performance as an actor. The same is true, he said, of AI-generated voices that can’t deliver the nuanced choices that go into big scenes — or smaller, strenuous efforts like screaming for 20 seconds to portray a character’s death by fire.

    “The big issue is that someone, somewhere has this massive data, and I now have no control over it,” said Prendergast, who voices Fuse in the game “Apex Legends.” “Nefarious or otherwise, someone can pick up that data now and go, we need a character that’s nine feet tall, that sounds like Ben Prendergast and can fight this battle scene. And I have no idea that that’s going on until the game comes out.”

    Studios would be able to “get away with that,” he said, unless SAG-AFTRA can secure the AI protections they are fighting for.

    “It reminds me a lot of sampling in the ‘80s and ’90s and 2000s where there were a lot of people getting around sampling classic songs,” he said. “This is an art. If you don’t protect rights over their likeness, or their voice or body and walk now, then you can’t really protect humans from other endeavors.”

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  • Can AI truly replicate the screams of a man on fire? Video game performers want their work protected

    Can AI truly replicate the screams of a man on fire? Video game performers want their work protected

    [ad_1]

    LOS ANGELES — For hours, motion capture sensors tacked onto Noshir Dalal’s body tracked his movements as he unleashed aerial strikes, overhead blows and single-handed attacks that would later show up in a video game. He eventually swung the sledgehammer gripped in his hand so many times that he tore a tendon in his forearm. By the end of the day, he couldn’t pull the handle of his car door open.

    The physical strain this type of motion work entails, and the hours put into it, are part of the reason why he believes all video-game performers should be protected equally from the use of unregulated artificial intelligence.

    Video game performers say they fear AI could reduce or eliminate job opportunities because the technology could be used to replicate one performance into a number of other movements without their consent. That’s a concern that led the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July.

    “If motion-capture actors, video-game actors in general, only make whatever money they make that day … that can be a really slippery slope,” said Dalal, who portrayed Bode Akuna in “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.” “Instead of being like, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring you back’ … they’re just not going to bring me back at all and not tell me at all that they’re doing this. That’s why transparency and compensation are so important to us in AI protections.”

    Hollywood’s video game performers announced a work stoppage — their second in a decade — after more than 18 months of negotiations over a new interactive media agreement with game industry giants broke down over artificial intelligence protections. Members of the union have said they are not anti-AI. The performers are worried, however, the technology could provide studios with a means to displace them.

    Dalal said he took it personally when he heard that the video game companies negotiating with SAG-AFTRA over a new contract wanted to consider some movement work “data” and not performance.

    If gamers were to tally up the cut scenes they watch in a game and compare them with the hours they spend controlling characters and interacting with non-player characters, they would see that they interact with “movers’” and stunt performers’ work “way more than you interact with my work,” Dalal said.

    “They are the ones selling the world these games live in, when you’re doing combos and pulling off crazy, super cool moves using Force powers, or you’re playing Master Chief, or you’re Spider-Man swinging through the city,” he said.

    Some actors argue that AI could strip less-experienced actors of the chance to land smaller background roles, such as non-player characters, where they typically cut their teeth before landing larger jobs. The unchecked use of AI, performers say, could also lead to ethical issues if their voices or likenesses are used to create content that they do not morally agree with. That type of ethical dilemma has recently surfaced with game “mods,” in which fans alter and create new game content. Last year, voice actors spoke out against such mods in the role-playing game “Skyrim,” which used AI to generate actors’ performances and cloned their voices for pornographic content.

    In video game motion capture, actors wear special Lycra or neoprene suits with markers on them. In addition to more involved interactions, actors perform basic movements like walking, running or holding an object. Animators grab from those motion capture recordings and chain them together to respond to what someone playing the game is doing.

    “What AI is allowing game developers to do, or game studios to do, is generate a lot of those animations automatically from past recordings,” said Brian Smith, an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Department of Computer Science. “No longer do studios need to gather new recordings for every single game and every type of animation that they would like to create. They can also draw on their archive of past animation.”

    If a studio has motion capture banked from a previous game and wants to create a new character, he said, animators could use those stored recordings as training data.

    “With generative AI, you can generate new data based on that pattern of prior data,” he said.

    A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered “meaningful” AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

    “We have worked hard to deliver proposals with reasonable terms that protect the rights of performers while ensuring we can continue to use the most advanced technology to create a great gaming experience for fans,” Cooling said. “We have proposed terms that provide consent and fair compensation for anyone employed under the (contract) if an AI reproduction or digital replica of their performance is used in games.”

    The game companies offered wage increases, she said, with an initial 7% increase in scale rates and an additional 7.64% increase effective in November. That’s an increase of 14.5% over the life of the contract. The studios had also agreed to increases in per diems, payment for overnight travel and a boost in overtime rates and bonus payments, she added.

    “Our goal is to reach an agreement with the union that will end this strike,” Cooling said.

    A 2023 report on the global games market from industry tracker Newzoo predicted that video games would begin to include more AI-generated voices, similar to the voice acting in “High on Life” from Squanch Games. Game developers, the Amsterdam-based firm said, will use AI to produce unique voices, bypassing the need to source voice actors.

    “Voice actors may see fewer opportunities in the future, especially as game developers use AI to cut development costs and time,” the report said, noting that “big AAA prestige games like ‘The Last of Us’ and ‘God of War’ use motion capture and voice acting similarly to Hollywood.”

    Other games, such as “Cyberpunk 2077,” cast celebrities.

    Actor Ben Prendergast said that data points collected for motion capture don’t pick up the “essence” of someone’s performance as an actor. The same is true, he said, of AI-generated voices that can’t deliver the nuanced choices that go into big scenes — or smaller, strenuous efforts like screaming for 20 seconds to portray a character’s death by fire.

    “The big issue is that someone, somewhere has this massive data, and I now have no control over it,” said Prendergast, who voices Fuse in the game “Apex Legends.” “Nefarious or otherwise, someone can pick up that data now and go, we need a character that’s nine feet tall, that sounds like Ben Prendergast and can fight this battle scene. And I have no idea that that’s going on until the game comes out.”

    Studios would be able to “get away with that,” he said, unless SAG-AFTRA can secure the AI protections they are fighting for.

    “It reminds me a lot of sampling in the ‘80s and ’90s and 2000s where there were a lot of people getting around sampling classic songs,” he said. “This is an art. If you don’t protect rights over their likeness, or their voice or body and walk now, then you can’t really protect humans from other endeavors.”

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  • Can AI truly replicate the screams of a man on fire? Video game performers want their work protected

    Can AI truly replicate the screams of a man on fire? Video game performers want their work protected

    [ad_1]

    LOS ANGELES — For hours, motion capture sensors tacked onto Noshir Dalal’s body tracked his movements as he unleashed aerial strikes, overhead blows and single-handed attacks that would later show up in a video game. He eventually swung the sledgehammer gripped in his hand so many times that he tore a tendon in his forearm. By the end of the day, he couldn’t pull the handle of his car door open.

    The physical strain this type of motion work entails, and the hours put into it, are part of the reason why he believes all video-game performers should be protected equally from the use of unregulated artificial intelligence.

    Video game performers say they fear AI could reduce or eliminate job opportunities because the technology could be used to replicate one performance into a number of other movements without their consent. That’s a concern that led the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July.

    “If motion-capture actors, video-game actors in general, only make whatever money they make that day … that can be a really slippery slope,” said Dalal, who portrayed Bode Akuna in “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.” “Instead of being like, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring you back’ … they’re just not going to bring me back at all and not tell me at all that they’re doing this. That’s why transparency and compensation are so important to us in AI protections.”

    Hollywood’s video game performers announced a work stoppage — their second in a decade — after more than 18 months of negotiations over a new interactive media agreement with game industry giants broke down over artificial intelligence protections. Members of the union have said they are not anti-AI. The performers are worried, however, the technology could provide studios with a means to displace them.

    Dalal said he took it personally when he heard that the video game companies negotiating with SAG-AFTRA over a new contract wanted to consider some movement work “data” and not performance.

    If gamers were to tally up the cut scenes they watch in a game and compare them with the hours they spend controlling characters and interacting with non-player characters, they would see that they interact with “movers’” and stunt performers’ work “way more than you interact with my work,” Dalal said.

    “They are the ones selling the world these games live in, when you’re doing combos and pulling off crazy, super cool moves using Force powers, or you’re playing Master Chief, or you’re Spider-Man swinging through the city,” he said.

    Some actors argue that AI could strip less-experienced actors of the chance to land smaller background roles, such as non-player characters, where they typically cut their teeth before landing larger jobs. The unchecked use of AI, performers say, could also lead to ethical issues if their voices or likenesses are used to create content that they do not morally agree with. That type of ethical dilemma has recently surfaced with game “mods,” in which fans alter and create new game content. Last year, voice actors spoke out against such mods in the role-playing game “Skyrim,” which used AI to generate actors’ performances and cloned their voices for pornographic content.

    In video game motion capture, actors wear special Lycra or neoprene suits with markers on them. In addition to more involved interactions, actors perform basic movements like walking, running or holding an object. Animators grab from those motion capture recordings and chain them together to respond to what someone playing the game is doing.

    “What AI is allowing game developers to do, or game studios to do, is generate a lot of those animations automatically from past recordings,” said Brian Smith, an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Department of Computer Science. “No longer do studios need to gather new recordings for every single game and every type of animation that they would like to create. They can also draw on their archive of past animation.”

    If a studio has motion capture banked from a previous game and wants to create a new character, he said, animators could use those stored recordings as training data.

    “With generative AI, you can generate new data based on that pattern of prior data,” he said.

    A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered “meaningful” AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

    “We have worked hard to deliver proposals with reasonable terms that protect the rights of performers while ensuring we can continue to use the most advanced technology to create a great gaming experience for fans,” Cooling said. “We have proposed terms that provide consent and fair compensation for anyone employed under the (contract) if an AI reproduction or digital replica of their performance is used in games.”

    The game companies offered wage increases, she said, with an initial 7% increase in scale rates and an additional 7.64% increase effective in November. That’s an increase of 14.5% over the life of the contract. The studios had also agreed to increases in per diems, payment for overnight travel and a boost in overtime rates and bonus payments, she added.

    “Our goal is to reach an agreement with the union that will end this strike,” Cooling said.

    A 2023 report on the global games market from industry tracker Newzoo predicted that video games would begin to include more AI-generated voices, similar to the voice acting in “High on Life” from Squanch Games. Game developers, the Amsterdam-based firm said, will use AI to produce unique voices, bypassing the need to source voice actors.

    “Voice actors may see fewer opportunities in the future, especially as game developers use AI to cut development costs and time,” the report said, noting that “big AAA prestige games like ‘The Last of Us’ and ‘God of War’ use motion capture and voice acting similarly to Hollywood.”

    Other games, such as “Cyberpunk 2077,” cast celebrities.

    Actor Ben Prendergast said that data points collected for motion capture don’t pick up the “essence” of someone’s performance as an actor. The same is true, he said, of AI-generated voices that can’t deliver the nuanced choices that go into big scenes — or smaller, strenuous efforts like screaming for 20 seconds to portray a character’s death by fire.

    “The big issue is that someone, somewhere has this massive data, and I now have no control over it,” said Prendergast, who voices Fuse in the game “Apex Legends.” “Nefarious or otherwise, someone can pick up that data now and go, we need a character that’s nine feet tall, that sounds like Ben Prendergast and can fight this battle scene. And I have no idea that that’s going on until the game comes out.”

    Studios would be able to “get away with that,” he said, unless SAG-AFTRA can secure the AI protections they are fighting for.

    “It reminds me a lot of sampling in the ‘80s and ’90s and 2000s where there were a lot of people getting around sampling classic songs,” he said. “This is an art. If you don’t protect rights over their likeness, or their voice or body and walk now, then you can’t really protect humans from other endeavors.”

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  • Possible work stoppage at Canada’s two largest railroads could disrupt US supply chain next week

    Possible work stoppage at Canada’s two largest railroads could disrupt US supply chain next week

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    DETROIT — Canada’s two largest railroads are starting to shut down their shipping networks as a labor dispute with the Teamsters union threatens to cause lockouts or strikes that would disrupt cross-border trade with the U.S.

    Both the Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National railroads, which haul millions of tons of freight across the border, have stopped taking certain shipments of hazardous materials and refrigerated products.

    Both are threatening to lock out Teamsters Canada workers starting Thursday if deals are not reached.

    On Tuesday, CPKC will stop all shipments that start in Canada and all shipments originating in the U.S. that are headed for Canada, the railroad said Saturday.

    The Canadian Press reported that on Friday, Canadian National barred container imports from U.S. partner railroads.

    Jeff Windau, industrials analyst for Edward Jones & Co., said his firm expects work stoppages to last only a few days, but if they go longer, there could be significant supply chain disruptions.

    “If something would carry on more of a longer term in nature, then I think there are some significant potential issues just given the amount of goods that are handled each day,” Windau said. “By and large the rails touch pretty much all of the economy.”

    The two railroads handle about 40,000 carloads of freight each day, worth about $1 billion, Windau said. Shipments of fully built automobiles and auto parts, chemicals, forestry products and agricultural goods would be hit hard, he said, especially with harvest season looming.

    Both railroads have extensive networks in the U.S., and CPKC also serves Mexico. Those operations will keep running even if there is a work stoppage.

    CPKC said it remains committed to avoiding a work stoppage that would damage Canada’s economy and international reputation. “However we must take responsible and prudent steps to prepare for a potential rail service interruption next week,” spokesman Patrick Waldron said in a statement.

    Shutting down the network will allow the railroad to get dangerous goods off of its network before any stoppage, CPKC said.

    Union spokesman Christopher Monette said in an email Saturday that negotiations continue, but the situation has shifted from a possible strike to “near certain lockout” by the railroads.

    CPKC said bargaining is scheduled to continue on Sunday with the union, which represents nearly 10,000 workers at both railroads. The company said it continues to bargain in good faith.

    Canadian National said in a statement Friday that there had been no meaningful progress in negotiations and it hoped the union “will engage meaningfully” during a meeting scheduled for Saturday.

    “CN wants a resolution that allows the company to get back to what it does best as a team, moving customers’ goods and the economy,” the railroad said.

    Negotiations have been going on since last November, and contracts expired at the end of 2023. They were extended as talks continued.

    The union said company demands on crew scheduling, rail safety and worker fatigue are the main sticking points.

    Concerns about the quality of life for rail workers dealing with demanding schedules and no paid sick time nearly led to a U.S. rail strike two years ago before Congress intervened and blocked a walkout. The major U.S. railroads have made progress since then in offering paid sick time to most rail workers and trying to improve schedules.

    Windau said the trucking industry currently has a lot of excess capacity and might be able to make up some of the railroads’ shipping volumes, but, “You’re not going to be able to replace all of that with trucking.”

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  • Workers go on strike at five-star Paris hotel where IOC members are staying for Olympics

    Workers go on strike at five-star Paris hotel where IOC members are staying for Olympics

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    PARIS (AP) — Workers went on strike Thursday at the five-star hotel in Paris where members of the International Olympic Committee are staying, walking out just a day before the opening ceremony of the Games.

    According to the major French union CGT, the IOC paid the hotel where staffers were striking, Hôtel du Collectionneur, 22 million euros ($23.88 million) for exclusive use of the facility.

    The Paris division of the CGT posted a video on social media appearing to be from inside the hotel, showing around a dozen staffers lining a corridor. Employees held signs reading, “No 13th month, no Olympics!,” “Luxury hotel, poverty wages” and “Give us back our social benefits.” Many companies in France pay their workers a bonus in December known as the “13th month.”

    The CGT said the employees were demanding a pay increase, having not received a raise for seven years. The strike comes after a fifth round of negotiations failed Wednesday.

    “Negotiations with the unions are underway, without affecting the operation of our hotel,” management for Hôtel du Collectionneur said in a statement Thursday. “Our teams remain mobilized and committed to ensuring that our services run smoothly.”

    Although a dividend of over 9.5 million euros ($10.3 million) was given to shareholders this year, the union says the hotel has made no attempt to improve the financial situation of its staff.

    In a separate protest, around 200 performers stood along the Seine River on Monday and refused to take part in a rehearsal for the opening ceremony being held Friday, protesting working conditions and inequality in the treatment of entertainment workers at the Paris games.

    The protests come as tensions run high following recent legislative elections, putting France on the brink of a governing paralysis — which, in turn, has sparked further calls for strikes.

    Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, called this month for mass demonstrations and possible strikes to pressure President Emmanuel Macron into “respecting the results” of the election and allow a left-wing coalition to form a new government.

    Binet didn’t rule out strikes during the Olympics. Asked about strikes that could disrupt the biggest event France has ever organized, she said, “At this stage, we don’t plan a strike during the Olympic Games. But if Emmanuel Macron continues to throw gasoline cans on the fires that he lighted …”

    CGT has an open call for potential strikes by public service workers from July through September.

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  • Hollywood’s video game performers head to the picket line over AI protections

    Hollywood’s video game performers head to the picket line over AI protections

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    LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s video game performers are heading to the Warner Bros. Studios lot Thursday to picket against what they call an unwillingness from top gaming companies to protect voice actors and motion capture workers equally against the unregulated use of artificial intelligence.

    The protest marks the first large labor action since game voice actors and performance workers voted to strike last week. The work stoppage came after more than 18 months of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement stalled over protections around the use of AI.

    Union leaders have billed AI as an existential crisis for performers. Game voice actors and motion capture artists’ likenesses, they say, could be replicated by AI and used without consent and fair compensation. The unregulated use of AI, the union says, poses “an equal or even greater threat” to performers in the video game industry than it does in film and television because the capacity to cheaply and easily create convincing digital replicas of performers’ voices is widely available.

    Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the video game producers, said the companies have offered AI protections as well as “a significant increase in wages for SAG-AFTRA represented performers in video games.”

    “We have worked hard to deliver proposals with reasonable terms that protect the rights of performers while ensuring we can continue to use the most advanced technology to create a great gaming experience for fans,” Cooling said. “We have proposed terms that provide consent and fair compensation for anyone employed under the (contract) if an AI reproduction or digital replica of their performance is used in games.”

    SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee argued that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

    “The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference last week, adding that some physical performances are being treated as “data.”

    The union had been negotiating with an industry bargaining group consisting of signatory video game companies. Those companies are Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Llama Productions LLC, Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc. and WB Games Inc.

    The global video game industry generated nearly $184 billion in revenue in 2023, according to game market forecaster Newzoo, with revenues projected to reach $207 billion in 2026.

    “We are at the table because we want to include SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in our productions, and we will continue working to resolve the last remaining issue in these negotiations,” Cooling said. “Our goal is to reach an agreement with the union that will end this strike.”

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  • Hollywood’s video game performers head to the picket line over AI protections

    Hollywood’s video game performers head to the picket line over AI protections

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    LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s video game performers are heading to the Warner Bros. Studios lot Thursday to picket against what they call an unwillingness from top gaming companies to protect voice actors and motion capture workers equally against the unregulated use of artificial intelligence.

    The protest marks the first large labor action since game voice actors and performance workers voted to strike last week. The work stoppage came after more than 18 months of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement stalled over protections around the use of AI.

    Union leaders have billed AI as an existential crisis for performers. Game voice actors and motion capture artists’ likenesses, they say, could be replicated by AI and used without consent and fair compensation. The unregulated use of AI, the union says, poses “an equal or even greater threat” to performers in the video game industry than it does in film and television because the capacity to cheaply and easily create convincing digital replicas of performers’ voices is widely available.

    Audrey Cooling, a spokesperson for the video game producers, said the companies have offered AI protections as well as “a significant increase in wages for SAG-AFTRA represented performers in video games.”

    “We have worked hard to deliver proposals with reasonable terms that protect the rights of performers while ensuring we can continue to use the most advanced technology to create a great gaming experience for fans,” Cooling said. “We have proposed terms that provide consent and fair compensation for anyone employed under the (contract) if an AI reproduction or digital replica of their performance is used in games.”

    SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee argued that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

    “The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference last week, adding that some physical performances are being treated as “data.”

    The union had been negotiating with an industry bargaining group consisting of signatory video game companies. Those companies are Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Llama Productions LLC, Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc. and WB Games Inc.

    The global video game industry generated nearly $184 billion in revenue in 2023, according to game market forecaster Newzoo, with revenues projected to reach $207 billion in 2026.

    “We are at the table because we want to include SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in our productions, and we will continue working to resolve the last remaining issue in these negotiations,” Cooling said. “Our goal is to reach an agreement with the union that will end this strike.”

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  • Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon and Sheryl Lee Ralph of ‘The Fabulous Four’ cherish longtime friends

    Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon and Sheryl Lee Ralph of ‘The Fabulous Four’ cherish longtime friends

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    From “Beaches” to “First Wives Club” and “Hocus Pocus,” Bette Midler has starred in a number of projects where women aren’t just at the center of the story — but also female friendship is a major theme.

    “The most fun ones are the women ones, I have to say,” said Midler in a recent interview.

    Her latest project is working alongside Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally in “The Fabulous Four.” Midler plays Marilyn, a widow getting married who wants her besties from her 20s to be bridesmaids. The production was granted a waiver to film last year during the Hollywood strikes which meant they had to be nimble and open to last-minute changes to get the job done quickly.

    “It was like someone blew the whistle and we all got on a plane,” recalled Sarandon. “It really was lucky that we had four women who were such pros and who were game to go under those circumstances.”

    While she and her co-stars were focused because they were working under a special circumstance, Sarandon says they made a point to cheer each other on for a big on-camera moment or scene.

    “When it was somebody’s time to be celebrated, we celebrated that person. And when somebody else had their scene, we were all standing around while they got their moment,” Sarandon said, adding that on some sets, actors choose to “not be really involved when it’s not about them.”

    As for friendships, Midler says “there’s nothing like having an old friend because they knew you when.” Two particular people come to mind when she thinks about her own friendships. One is the sister of a close friend who died. “The other is the girl that I came to New York with when we were both 19.”

    “They don’t take any bs from you, and you really can be yourself,” said Midler.

    Sarandon relies on “six women” and “scores of gay guys that have been in my life for 30, 40 years.”

    “We’ve been through kids and divorces and whatever, and I definitely count on them and sometimes disagree with them, but they are definitely in my tribe,” she said.

    Ralph, an Emmy winner for her role on ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” still keeps in touch with her childhood best friend, Elizabeth. “I’ll hear from her on social media every now and again,” she said.

    “My friend Carol — we met at the Miss Black Teenage America pageant. We’re still friends to this day. All the ladies from ‘Dreamgirls,’ — Loretta Devine, Jenifer Lewis, Jennifer Holliday — we still talk. There are just so many of those relationships, and you don’t have to start from the beginning. You can just pick up right where you were.”

    It’s her appreciation for her own longtime friendships that made Ralph want to be in “The Fabulous Four.”

    “I loved the fact that they weren’t 19, 20 or 30 or 40. These were seasoned women, or, as we say in the vernacular, grown (expletive) women living their lives.”

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  • Airline catering workers threaten to strike as soon as next week without agreement on new contract

    Airline catering workers threaten to strike as soon as next week without agreement on new contract

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    WASHINGTON — More than 8,000 airline catering workers are threatening to go on strike as soon as next week, adding more uncertainty to summer travel, which has already been disrupted by fallout from a widespread technology outage.

    The workers are employed by Gategourmet, a subsidiary of a Swiss company. They prepare, pack and deliver food and drinks to planes at about 30 U.S. airports.

    Unions representing the workers said Friday they have been negotiating six years for better pay and health insurance. The unions, including Unite Here and the Teamsters, say that only 25% of the workers are in the company’s health plan and, as of January, some were paid as little as $13 an hour.

    Although the catering workers are not employed by airlines, their unions argue that the airlines’ profitability means that subcontractors like Gategourmet should be able to pay their workers better.

    Gategourmet said it has made an “industry-leading offer” that includes wage and health care improvements. The company said the sides “have made progress” in the last few days, but if there is a strike at the early-Tuesday deadline, it will use “workaround options” to ensure minimal disruption to airlines.

    Strikes in the airline industry are rare because of federal law requiring mediators to determine that future negotiations are unlikely to result in a settlement. In this case, the National Mediation Board released the unions from mediation June 29, which started a countdown toward a potential legal strike.

    The two sides were meeting Friday.

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  • Video game actors are now on strike. Here’s why

    Video game actors are now on strike. Here’s why

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    LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s video game performers went on strike Friday after negotiations with game industry giants that began more than a year and a half ago came to a halt over artificial intelligence protections.

    Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have billed the issues behind the labor dispute — and AI in particular — as an existential crisis for performers. Game voice actors and motion capture artists’ likenesses, they say, could be replicated by AI and used without their consent and without fair compensation.

    The union says the unregulated use of AI poses “an equal or even greater threat” to performers in the video game industry than it does in film and television because the capacity to cheaply and easily create convincing digital replicas of performers’ voices is widely available.

    SAG-AFTRA negotiators said gains had been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI.

    A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered “meaningful AI protections” to performers in their proposal, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

    “The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as “data.”

    Here are five things to know about the strike, which went into effect 12:01 a.m. Friday:

    The agreement covers more than 2,500 “off-camera voiceover performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers,” according to SAG-AFTRA.

    The union had been negotiating with an industry bargaining group consisting of signatory video game companies, including divisions of Activision and Electronic Arts. Those companies are Activision Productions Inc., Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Llama Productions LLC, Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc. and WB Games Inc., the union said.

    “We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations,” Cooling said.

    Thursday’s labor action marks the second time SAG-AFTRA’s video game performers have gone on strike. Their first work stoppage, in October 2016, began after more than one year of negotiations failed. The union and video game companies reached a tentative deal 11 months later, in September 2017. At the time, the strike — which helped secure a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists — was the longest in the union’s history, following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

    SAG-AFTRA has said that some of the key issues include securing wages that keep up with inflation, protections around “exploitative uses” of artificial intelligence and safety precautions that account for the strain of physical performances as well as vocal stress. Union negotiators told The Associated Press that they had made gains in bargaining over wages and job safety, but that the game studios refused to “provide an equal level of protection from the dangers of AI for all our members.”

    “If we had seen sufficient protection for all performers who work this contract … then we would not be here today,” Interactive Media Agreement Negotiating Committee Chair Sarah Elmaleh said in an interview Thursday afternoon.

    Although the unchecked use of artificial intelligence has been a sticking point in talks, voice actors and members of the union negotiating committee have said they are not anti-AI. The performers are worried, however, that unchecked use of AI could provide game makers with a means to displace them — by training an AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or to create a digital replica of their likeness without consent.

    Some also argue that AI could also strip less experienced actors of the chance to land smaller background roles, such as non-player characters, where they typically cut their teeth before landing larger roles. The unchecked use of AI, performers say, could also lead to ethical issues if their voices or likenesses are used create content that they do not morally agree with.

    SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered indie and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry bargaining group rejected.

    The union also announced a side deal with AI voice company Replica Studios in January that enables major studios to work with unionized actors to create and license a digital replica of their voice. It also sets terms that allow performers to opt out of having their voices used in perpetuity.

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  • Video game performers will go on strike over artificial intelligence concerns

    Video game performers will go on strike over artificial intelligence concerns

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    LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

    The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

    SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

    “The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as “data.”

    Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

    “We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can,” Rodriguez told reporters. “We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now.”

    Cooling said the companies’ offer “extends meaningful AI protections.”

    “We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations,” she said.

    Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union’s negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies’ offer.

    “The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier,” Norris said. “We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer.”

    The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

    Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

    The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

    The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 “off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers,” according to the union.

    Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.

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  • Video game performers will go on strike over artificial intelligence concerns

    Video game performers will go on strike over artificial intelligence concerns

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    LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

    The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

    SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

    “The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as “data.”

    Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

    “We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can,” Rodriguez told reporters. “We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now.”

    Cooling said the companies’ offer “extends meaningful AI protections.”

    “We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations,” she said.

    Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union’s negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies’ offer.

    “The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier,” Norris said. “We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer.”

    The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

    Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

    The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

    The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 “off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers,” according to the union.

    Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.

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  • Video game performers will go on strike over artificial intelligence concerns

    Video game performers will go on strike over artificial intelligence concerns

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    LOS ANGELES — Hollywood’s video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

    The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

    SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a “performer” is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

    “The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement,” SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as “data.”

    Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

    “We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can,” Rodriguez told reporters. “We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now.”

    Cooling said the companies’ offer “extends meaningful AI protections.”

    “We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations,” she said.

    Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union’s negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies’ offer.

    “The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier,” Norris said. “We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer.”

    The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

    Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

    The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

    The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 “off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers,” according to the union.

    Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.

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  • Samsung Electronics workers announce ‘indefinite’ strike

    Samsung Electronics workers announce ‘indefinite’ strike

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    SEOUL, South Korea — Unionized workers at Samsung Electronics declared an indefinite strike Wednesday to pressure South Korea’s biggest company to accept their calls for higher pays and other benefits.

    Thousands of members of the National Samsung Electronics Union launched a temporary, three-day strike on Monday. But the union said Wednesday that it was announcing an indefinite strike, accusing the management of being unwilling to negotiate. Samsung Electronics says there have been no disruptions to production.

    “Samsung Electronics will ensure no disruptions occur in the production lines,” a Samsung statement said. “The company remains committed to engaging in good faith negotiations with the union.”

    However, in a statement posted on its website, the union said it has engaged in unspecified disruptions on the company’s production lines to get management to eventually come to the negotiating table if the strikes continue.

    “We are confident of our victory,” the union statement said.

    The union statement didn’t say how many of its members would join the extended strike. It earlier said that 6,540 of its union members had said they would participate in the earlier, three-day strike.

    That would represent only a fraction of Samsung Electronics’ total workforce, estimated at about 267,860 globally. About 120,000 of them are in South Korea.

    Earlier this year, union members and management held rounds of talks on the union’s demand for higher wages and better working conditions, but they failed to reach agreement. In June, some union members collectively used their annual leaves in a one-day walkout that observers said was the first labor strike at Samsung Electronics.

    About 30,000 Samsung workers are reportedly affiliated with the National Samsung Electronics Union, the largest at the company, and some belong to other, smaller unions.

    In 2020, Samsung chief Lee Jae-yong, then vice chairman of the company, said he would stop suppressing employee attempts to organize unions, as he expressed remorse over his alleged involvement in a massive 2016 corruption scandal that removed the country’s president from office.

    The company’s union-busting practices had been criticized by activists for decades, though labor actions at other businesses and in other sectors of the society are common in South Korea.

    Thousands of South Korean medical interns and residents have been on strike since February, protesting a government plan to sharply increase medical school admissions.

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  • President Biden cancels Sunday’s speech at teachers union convention in Philly due to strike

    President Biden cancels Sunday’s speech at teachers union convention in Philly due to strike

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    President Joe Biden will not speak as planned at a teachers union convention Sunday in Philadelphia after staff at the National Education Association went on strike and set up picket lines outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The organization had been scheduled to conclude its annual conference there this weekend before labor negotiations broke down.

    Biden, who has been a champion of unions, said he would not cross the picket line to appear at the event.

    “The president is still planning to travel to Pennsylvania this weekend,” the Biden campaign said, but it didn’t immediately reveal alternative plans.

    The NEA is the nation’s largest labor union and represents public school teachers, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators and college students preparing to become teachers. On Friday, the National Education Association Staff Organization (NEASO) went on strike and filed a pair of complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, which included allegations of wage theft and withholding requested information about NEA’s use of contractors.

    NEA was founded in Philadelphia in 1857 and had anticipated 7,000 delegates would attend this weekend’s conference in the city. The organization said Friday it would continue negotiations with staff to resolve the labor dispute with NEASO, which represents 350 members of NEA’s 3 million member union, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported. 

    Biden’s speech had been planned amid turmoil about his bid for reelection in the aftermath of a poor showing in his first presidential debate against Republican challenger Donald Trump late last month. Democrats have reportedly weighed whether the president should exit the race in favor of another candidate, but the White House so far has insisted Biden is “absolutely not” dropping out of the contest. The Democratic National Convention will be held in Chicago from Aug. 19-22.

    On Friday at 8 p.m., ABC News will air Biden’s first TV interview since the debate — a sit down with George Stephanopoulos that will give the president a chance to address the growing concerns about his candidacy.

    Biden last appeared in Philadelphia in May for an event with Vice President Kamala Harris to rally support among Black voters in the city.

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    Michael Tanenbaum

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  • Nurses in Oregon take to the picket lines to demand better staffing, higher pay

    Nurses in Oregon take to the picket lines to demand better staffing, higher pay

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    More than 3,000 nurses at six Oregon hospitals spent a second day on the picket lines Wednesday carrying signs that say, “Patients over profits” and “We’re out to ensure it’s safe in there,” as they continued to demand fair wages and better staffing levels.

    Nurses are striking at six Providence medical facilities across the state — from St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland in the north down to the Medford Medical Center in the south.

    Organizers say it’s the largest nurses strike in the state’s history, while Providence emphasized that no patient’s health is being put at risk, since it has hired contract workers to temporarily fill the void.

    Scott Palmer, chief of staff with the Oregon Nurses Association, said nurses have been in negotiations since December but they “have not been able to get Providence to come to a fair contract.”

    Palmer said the focus of negotiations is on “recruitment and retention issues,” including wages, benefits and sufficient staffing standards.

    Jennifer Gentry, chief nursing officer for Providence’s Central Division, said the organization contracted with a company to provide replacement workers to ensure patient care does not suffer. Gary Walker, a spokesperson for the company, said the strike has not affected their facilities. They treated about 800 people in their Emergency Departments on Tuesday and no elective surgeries have been postponed.

    Palmer said the striking nurses want people to get the care they need, but they want the caregivers to be supported.

    “It’s really important for people to know from the nurses and from the American Nurses Association that if you’re sick, don’t delay getting medical care,” Palmer told The Associated Press. “Patients should seek hospital care immediately if they need it. Obviously, our nurses would rather be the ones providing that care, but Providence forced our hands and instead we find ourselves out on the picket line advocating for those patients.”

    Staffing and competitive wages are the focus of their demands, Palmer said. When staffing levels are low, nurses can’t take lunch, there are delays in answering patient calls, and it’s even difficult to find time to go to the bathroom, he said.

    That constant stress is causing record levels of burnout among nurses, Palmer said.

    “We know that nurses are choosing to leave the profession in droves and there’s a moral injury that nurses experience from being unable to provide the quality care that patients deserve, because at least in Oregon, the primary reason for that is unsafe staffing levels,” he said.

    Providence nursing officer Gentry said Oregon has passed a “safe staffing” law and the company follows the law’s staffing mandates.

    Palmer said the nurses want Providence to put those staffing levels in the contracts, but Gentry said they offered to put in the contract that they’ll follow the law, instead of including specific numbers in case the law changes.

    The strike is scheduled to run through Thursday.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show Jennifer Gentry’s proper title. She is chief nursing officer for Providence’s Central Division.

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  • Nurses in Oregon take to the picket lines to demand better staffing, higher pay

    Nurses in Oregon take to the picket lines to demand better staffing, higher pay

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    More than 3,000 nurses at six Oregon hospitals spent a second day on the picket lines Wednesday carrying signs that say, “Patients over profits” and “We’re out to ensure it’s safe in there,” as they continued to demand fair wages and better staffing levels.

    Nurses are striking at six Providence medical facilities across the state — from St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland in the north down to the Medford Medical Center in the south.

    Organizers say it’s the largest nurses strike in the state’s history, while Providence emphasized that no patient’s health is being put at risk, since it has hired contract workers to temporarily fill the void.

    Scott Palmer, chief of staff with the Oregon Nurses Association, said nurses have been in negotiations since December but they “have not been able to get Providence to come to a fair contract.”

    Palmer said the focus of negotiations is on “recruitment and retention issues,” including wages, benefits and sufficient staffing standards.

    Jennifer Gentry, chief nursing officer for Providence’s Central Division, said the organization contracted with a company to provide replacement workers to ensure patient care does not suffer. Gary Walker, a spokesperson for the company, said the strike has not affected their facilities. They treated about 800 people in their Emergency Departments on Tuesday and no elective surgeries have been postponed.

    Palmer said the striking nurses want people to get the care they need, but they want the caregivers to be supported.

    “It’s really important for people to know from the nurses and from the American Nurses Association that if you’re sick, don’t delay getting medical care,” Palmer told The Associated Press. “Patients should seek hospital care immediately if they need it. Obviously, our nurses would rather be the ones providing that care, but Providence forced our hands and instead we find ourselves out on the picket line advocating for those patients.”

    Staffing and competitive wages are the focus of their demands, Palmer said. When staffing levels are low, nurses can’t take lunch, there are delays in answering patient calls, and it’s even difficult to find time to go to the bathroom, he said.

    That constant stress is causing record levels of burnout among nurses, Palmer said.

    “We know that nurses are choosing to leave the profession in droves and there’s a moral injury that nurses experience from being unable to provide the quality care that patients deserve, because at least in Oregon, the primary reason for that is unsafe staffing levels,” he said.

    Providence nursing officer Gentry said Oregon has passed a “safe staffing” law and the company follows the law’s staffing mandates.

    Palmer said the nurses want Providence to put those staffing levels in the contracts, but Gentry said they offered to put in the contract that they’ll follow the law, instead of including specific numbers in case the law changes.

    The strike is scheduled to run through Thursday.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to show Jennifer Gentry’s proper title. She is chief nursing officer for Providence’s Central Division.

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  • Judge Orders California Grad Students To Pause Their Massive Strike

    Judge Orders California Grad Students To Pause Their Massive Strike

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    A state judge has ordered graduate student workers at the University of California to temporarily stop their strike at six campuses across the system, delivering a win to UC regents in their legal effort to force strikers back to work.

    Both the university system and the academic workers’ union, United Auto Workers Local 4811, said late Friday that the judge in Orange County had granted a temporary restraining order against the work stoppage. UC had argued that the strike would cause “irreparable harm” by disrupting classes and research as finals loom.

    The strike began last month in response to the administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests at the Los Angeles and Irvine campuses, part of a wave of college demonstrations across the country against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The union accused the university system of authorizing brutal arrests and violating workers’ right to peaceful protest.

    After starting at UC Santa Cruz, the strike spread to five other campuses: UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego. It now appears to be the largest U.S. work stoppage of the year so far, involving up to 31,500 of the union’s 48,000 members.

    The injunction orders graduate student instructors and researchers temporarily back to work while the underlying case moves through a state labor board. The union has accused UC of committing various unfair labor practices stemming from its protest response.

    Academic workers protest at the University of California, Irvine, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Orange County, California. When workers there recently walked off the job, they joined their counterparts at other campuses on strike in response to UC’s handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

    Zeng Hui/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images

    Melissa Matella, UC’s associate vice president for labor relations, said in a statement that the university system was “extremely grateful” for the judge’s order.

    “The strike would have caused irreversible setbacks to students’ academic achievements and may have stalled critical research projects in the final quarter,” Matella said.

    UC had asked the state labor board twice to seek an injunction and was rebuffed both times. It then took its case to Orange County Superior Court.

    Local 4811 cautioned that the judge did not rule the strike to be illegal, as the university system has argued. It also criticized UC regents for going outside of the labor board process in search of a “more favorable outcome” in state court, and vowed to defend the legality of the strike.

    The university system has said that the justifications for the strike are purely political and social — rather than work-related — and therefore the stoppage is against the law. But the grad students have maintained that the fight is about their rights as employees to protest without fear of arrest or retaliation.

    “UC academic workers are facing down an attack on our whole movement,” Rafael Jaime, the union’s president, said in a statement. “In the courtroom, the law is on our side and we’re prepared to keep defending our rights — and outside, 48,000 workers are ready for a long fight.”

    Veena Dubal, a law professor at UC Irvine, said on social media that it was “pretty darn brazen” of the university system to take its injunction request to court after the labor board had twice decline to pursue it.

    “UC’s actions are not unlike what Starbucks and Amazon are doing in the private sector: attempting to undermine the bodies governing labor law,” Dubal said.

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  • The Grad Student Strike In California Is Now The Biggest U.S. Strike Of The Year

    The Grad Student Strike In California Is Now The Biggest U.S. Strike Of The Year

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    A strike by graduate student workers has spread to six campuses across the University of California system, as administrators now turn to the courts in an effort to force the strikers back to work.

    The work stoppage appears to be the largest so far this year in the U.S, involving a majority of the 48,000 academic workers who are members of the United Auto Workers Local 4811. The union organized the strike last month in response to the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests and encampments stemming from Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

    The latest school to take part in the strike was UC Irvine, where grad students walked off the job on Wednesday morning, according to Local 4811. They were preceded by grad students at UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego, who joined the strike on Monday, and UC Davis, UCLA and UC Santa Cruz, who walked off in May.

    In total, the union has called on 31,500 members in the system to stop working, although exactly how many have hit the picket lines is unclear. Seventy-nine percent of members were in favor of authorizing the strike when a vote was held in mid-May, the union said. (Earlier this year, up to 29,000 faculty members at California State University went on a one-day strike in a contract dispute.)

    “It cuts to the core of what it means to be a worker at this university.”

    – Tanzil Chowdhury, graduate student researcher and union executive board member

    Tanzil Chowdhury, a graduate student instructor and executive board member of the union, said members across the UC system were “agitated” over the university’s handling of protests. Police made more than 200 arrests at UCLA after counterprotesters violently attacked pro-Palestinian demonstrators, and dozens more later at UC Irvine. The university said it believed the encampments posed a public safety threat.

    “A huge number of our workers are extremely unhappy with the way that the university has been conducting itself,” said Chowdhury, a Ph.D. student in the materials science and engineering program at UC Berkeley. “People really understand the grave threat that the university is posing to us.”

    The university has twice sought to have a state labor relations board force the grad students back to work, arguing that the work stoppage was illegal and causing “irreparable harm.” Their requests that the board seek an injunction in court were denied both times.

    On Tuesday, the university took their fight to state court, filing a lawsuit in Orange County seeking a temporary restraining order to end the strike. The suit claims the work stoppage violates the no-strike clause in the union’s contract, and alleges some picketers have blocked entrances at schools and hospitals and barricades themselves in campus buildings.

    Member of United Auto Workers Local 4811 strike at UCLA last month. Police arrested more than 200 demonstrators at the campus after violent attacks by counterprotesters.

    Brian van der Brug via Getty Images

    Melissa Matella, the University of California’s associate vice president for labor relations, said in a statement that the strike “endangers life-saving research in hundreds of laboratories across the University and will also cause the University substantial monetary damages.”

    The university argues the strike is about purely political and social issues, as opposed to workplace grievances, and therefore is against the law.

    But when the union filed unfair labor practice charges last month, it said its demands were tied directly to the workplace — such as the right to opt out of military-funded research, and a request that the university “disclose and divest” any funds tied to Israel’s war effort.

    Striking over alleged unfair labor practices — as opposed to pay and benefits — can bolster a union’s case that it isn’t violating a no-strike agreement.

    Chowdhury argued that the university undermined the right to peaceful protest when it called in police on campuses, effectively changing work policy without bargaining with the union. The union said during the police response some protesters suffered burns, bone fractures and, in one case, a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

    “It’s traumatic stuff. I was speaking to someone there [at UCLA] who was worried the next day she’d be writing an obituary for a colleague,” Chowdhury said. “It cuts to the core of what it means to be a worker at this university.”

    “The university has twice sought to have a state labor relations board force the grad students back to work, arguing that the work stoppage was illegal and causing ‘irreparable harm.’”

    Local 4811 has modeled its work stoppage on the UAW’s strike last year against Ford, General Motors and Jeep parent company Stellantis, which began small and gradually grew to encompass more worksites.

    The graduate student workers are not doing any grading or instructional work while on strike, with undergraduate exams looming this month. The university said most campuses have their finals in early June to mid-June. Meanwhile, four campuses remain to be called to strike: UC Berkeley, UC Merced, UC San Francisco and UC Riverside.

    The two sides have met in mediation at the urging of the state labor board. But barring a court order to return to work, it appears unlikely the strike will end until the union and the university can hash out an agreement regarding protests and campus policies.

    The university said in court filings that the strike had forced it to shut down an unknown number of seminars and laboratory sessions at several campuses — and that the unpredictable nature of the strike has made it difficult to plan around it.

    “UAW members often do not inform campus administrators that they are striking and canceling classes,” Matella said in a declaration in Orange County Superior Court. “They just do it, again increasing the uncertainty and adding to the chaos.”

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  • Grad Students In California Go On Strike Over Campus Protest Crackdown

    Grad Students In California Go On Strike Over Campus Protest Crackdown

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    Their union said they’re protesting the university’s “unlawful behavior” amid pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

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