txfilmfan wrote: ↑September 18th, 2023, 4:46 pm
jamesjazzguitar wrote: ↑September 18th, 2023, 3:51 pm
Note that the auto strike relates to automation and electric cars. Electric cars require less employees (and thus union members), to put together.
E.g. the battery is pre-built outside of the auto factory. One of the US auto workers union's demands is that batteries have to be made in the USA with workers that are part of the union.
This is related to the writer's strike in that one of their demands is a minimum number of writers per-project regardless of if they needed or not (e.g., AI software does a lot of the writing).
I think all unions get such rules written into contracts. For example, the musicians union local in NYC has a guaranteed number of minimum players, which varies by theater.
Where I worked, the union covered electronics assembly line workers, construction workers, electricians and furniture movers. They were part of the UAW. The worst dealings were with the movers. There was a rule that they had to send 3 guys to move stuff, even if it only required one or two. The movers were also ones to file the most grievances, because we could not move furniture from one office or cubicle to another without a union guy doing it. That included temporarily borrowing a chair and moving it from one office to another for a quick meeting. If a union rep happened to be in the area and saw you moving a chair, they would file a grievance.
If ALL unions had such rules, there wouldn't be all of these strikes. Therefore, that just isn't true. Yea, SOME unions, mainly those representing physical type workers have such rules, but clearly the unions asking for these types of rules, NOW, are doing so because they don't have them.
Note that this is happening in Los Angeles County, where automated check-out machines have been banned for over a decade. Now the union is saying they would be OK with automated check-out as long as it was in their contract that no workers could be replaced due to automated check-out machines. Just another example where unions are looking for companies to pay workers for not working. I.e., a certain number of check-out clerks per annual revenue taken-in by a store (and not based on the need for such workers).
Also, the State of CA is looking to pass a law that would ban automated delivery for 5 years. The reason given to protect jobs from being replaced by automation. The authors have even said that such a law isn't any type of solution but only a way to slow down progress under the hope that other type of jobs that require human workers can replace those lost by automation. Note that Governor Newsom hasn't decided if he will veto the bill or not. He wants to run for President in 2028 (or soon if something happens to Biden): I suspect that Newsom will veto this bill since it is the type of law that plays-well-in-lib-CA, but not in most other states.
PS: All of "this" is relevant to the writers \ actors strike since all major players live and work in L.A. County. E.g. the Nanny, Fran Drescher, head of the SGA, (the actor's union).