julie sue
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Attendees at this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards didn’t just rub shoulders with movie stars. Murderers of the Flower Moon, oppenheimer He is not only a candidate for the award, but also a current member of President Biden’s cabinet.
In a sign of the times in Hollywood, Acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su will attend the guild ceremony to recognize the impact of SAG-AFTRA’s 2023 strike and resulting contract. “This has been an important year for SAG-AFTRA,” Sue, who is attending the awards ceremony in her personal capacity, explained in an interview Wednesday. She added that she wanted to celebrate with trade unions and “recognize the important role they played in uplifting workers.”
Sue is well-versed in the Hollywood labor landscape, having served as California Labor Commissioner for seven years and liaised with the Actors Guild, Writers Guild of America, and Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance during the 2023 strike. (However, she was not involved in the negotiations as she was during the negotiations. west coast port negotiations In an interview before attending the SAG Awards, she talked about the role she believes Hollywood unions play in the larger workforce and explained her approach to AI and the threats and opportunities it poses to workers. .
Was there anything particularly memorable about the SAG-AFTRA deal last year?
There were many important things that SAG-AFTRA did. One is obviously just participating in a period in this country where workers are really demanding their fair share. We’ve seen it from Hollywood to health care workers to autoworkers to teachers to longshoremen. All of these union contracts affected not only union members but also non-union workers and sent a strong message about the importance of working people. Another thing is that we had to go on strike to get the victory, which was never easy. They helped demonstrate the power of strikes because they required sacrifice, discipline, and great solidarity. But there was another specific question about contracts. Obviously, it’s always been about wages and working conditions, but SAG-AFTRA really demonstrated the importance of AI and how the technological changes we’re seeing impact working people. It was one of the unions. And they must draw a line in the sand to ensure they create industries and futures where working people benefit from the positive aspects of AI and are protected from its potential negative consequences. I pulled it. And I think it was really powerful to see them do that, not just for their industry, but for everyone else who faces AI in their own ways.
How do you feel about the role that Hollywood unions are playing in the U.S. labor landscape as a whole at this time?
I believe that just as unions are the backbone of the American middle class, they are also the backbone of Hollywood. The president has always said that the middle class built America and that unions built the middle class. We’ve seen it through SAG-AFTRA, the Writers Guild, and the many other unions that have come to the bargaining table and taken to the streets to demand their fair share. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence or coincidence that these things happened at the same time that we have the most pro-worker, pro-union president in history who has clearly stated that we cannot build an economy. Masu. If working people don’t behave right, that’s what we want. If we don’t center the well-being of working people, we won’t make America better and stronger, and we won’t recover from the crisis of recent years. I mean, the union you mentioned really demonstrated how it works.I think the other thing is just a challenge. [they posed] It sends a clear message to employers that if workers do the right thing, they will get better results.
IATSE and the Teamsters will begin negotiations this year. Do you have any plans to speak with their leaders or the leaders of the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance at this time?
No, I mean, I’m always open to talking to anyone, whether it’s labor or management, and I feel like that’s a core part of my job. She was in regular contact with the Teamsters during a recent visit to her IATSE Local 720 in Las Vegas.I spoke with AMPTP while negotiations were ongoing. [with the writers’ and actors’ unions in 2023]. So I think having open lines of communication is extremely valuable. I also think, certainly in any industry, when an employer is negotiating with a union, they’re looking forward to what else is coming. So, you asked earlier, what do the results that SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild achieved mean? I think that sets the bar for what comes next. That way, when an employee does well, other employees are encouraged. So, although we haven’t talked about this specifically, I imagine the industry is looking at these contracts as a model for future contracts. But certainly, again, leave it up to the parties to negotiate what they need to determine their priorities, always open to discussion, and see if it would be helpful for me to do more than that. I intend to decide this together with the parties involved.
Let’s talk a little bit about AI. Where can trade unions and management be more productive now in tackling this issue, and where does policy really need to play a role?
One way to answer your question is that employers and workers need to seriously think together about the impact of AI. It is important that decisions not only about what AI to deploy, but also when, how, and for what purpose, are not unilateral. However, one thing is that AI is evolving. And in many cases, by the time contract negotiations occur, the contract has evolved. So policy has a role, and that’s why the president made the following statement. presidential order When it comes to AI, I urge all of us, the administration and all of our civilian stakeholders, to think about what safe and secure AI looks like. And I say that AI is not safe or secure if it harms the people who work there. So my approach to the executive order is to understand what we need to do to ensure that AI does the right thing for workers. I also think we need to challenge AI developers and engineers to ask themselves, if we’re really going to innovate, how can we use technology to solve the real problems we have in the world and in the workplace? Masu.
What is the Department of Labor currently working on regarding AI?
Part of it is exactly this question, [which is] How do we see AI benefiting workers? We’re also looking at it from a workforce perspective, including how AI will change jobs, but let’s be clear: The answer to the question is also not fixed. Robots aren’t coming, so we have to figure out how to adapt. Every decision we make determines what the outcome will be. We also found that AI has the potential to create jobs. And how do we ensure that we have a workforce that can fill those jobs and that we have a workforce like America’s that is accessible to everyone? [them].I’m not a person who believes that [AI is] We’re going to abolish the entire job category completely, and it’s important for us to consider that, but how does AI complement human ingenuity, human talent, human ability, and prepare workers? How should we think about how we can actually build workforce systems that work for those changes?
For me, one of the benefits of Hollywood’s focus over the past year on what’s good for workers is that we’re starting to talk about human creativity, human ingenuity, right? There are some things that humans really need to do. I remember what the writers said to me when I met them during negotiations. There was a saying like, “AI has never been to a fat camp.” “AI has never had childhood trauma.” Thinking about AI in the context of how to preserve and extend the beauty of human creativity is also a critical part of this issue. I think that’s part of it.
How concerned are you and the Biden-Harris administration about exclusion caused by AI tools that use copyrighted content as training materials and whose creators claim they are based on their own work? ?
Congress is also trying to figure out what to do in this area, and they often come to us for technical assistance. We always provide that. But one way I think about this is that a lot of AI is being developed using information from workers. For example, self-driving car technology is built by analyzing the movements, actions, and decisions of real workers. driver. Therefore, one important question to ask is: How can we ensure that the workers who help make the technology possible actually benefit from it, including being compensated for their labor? I think. Their workforce is helping make that AI a reality. Therefore, when we think about learning something or building something from the labor of workers, we would like to think about what the compensation should be. There are a lot of answers that are being developed and explored as we speak, and I think that’s one element of protecting workers.
In the entertainment industry, the recent introduction of OpenAI’s text-to-video model Sora has raised many concerns that the technology will threaten jobs in the industry. Have you and your colleagues at the Department of Labor looked into Sora yet?
As you said, it’s relatively new. I am aware of that. it is, [idea that] Technology is evolving, and it’s evolving really fast. But again, no impact is inevitable. Everything is the result of choices made, and we want to make sure those choices consider what’s good for workers and include workers in the conversation.
On a lighter note, are you rooting for any particular nominees at this year’s SAG Awards?
No, I support everyone. So I’m not just the Acting Secretary of Labor, I’m a huge fan. I grew up in LA, so I’ve been a fan of both movies and television for a long time. I’ve always been excited about diversity and representation in the industry. [I’m] I’m certainly happy to see that and I’m happy to see the industry making it a priority and how consumers are responding. I have long believed that diversity leads to excellence, and excellence leads to diversity.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.