All posts tagged: Labor

Pope Leo launches AI commission – POLITICO

Pope Leo launches AI commission – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

The announcement came a day after Pope Leo signed his encyclical, a letter drawn up by the pontiff and sent to bishops to provide instructions or guidance on moral questions. His new encyclical, which should be made public in coming weeks, is expected to consider the question of AI within the church’s social teaching, which also covers issues such as labor, justice and peace. It’s not the first time Pope Leo has waded into questions of AI. Just a few days after he was elected in May 2025, he told cardinals that the Catholic Church owed it to the world to offer the “treasury of its social teaching” to confront the challenges posed by AI on “human dignity, justice and labor.” In June 2025, Pope Leo criticized the potential negative consequences of growing AI use. After noting AI’s potential for good, the pope said there is a possibility for “misuse for selfish gain” and as a way to “foment conflict and aggression.” “All of us, I am sure, are concerned for children and young people, …

Race, Risk, and the VBAC Calculator: The Politics of Race Correction in Childbirth

Race, Risk, and the VBAC Calculator: The Politics of Race Correction in Childbirth

Published by Jenni Sidey

Image provided by Mncube. I started noticing a pattern. Every Black woman I know who has given birth in the past decade delivered by cesarean. Some of those surgeries were scheduled in advance. Some followed hours of labor. Some were described as unavoidable emergencies. But the outcome was the same. At first, I treated it as coincidence. Childbirth is unpredictable. Cesarean delivery can be lifesaving. Obstetric care is complex. No two births unfold the same way. But the pattern unsettled me, and I began to ask a different kind of question. Not just what was happening to these women, but what was shaping the information they were given when decisions were being made. What did these women actually know about how their risk was being calculated? And who, or what, had shaped that calculation before they ever walked into a consultation room? These questions led me to vaginal birth after cesarean—commonly called VBAC. VBAC refers to attempting a vaginal delivery in a pregnancy after a prior cesarean section. National clinical guidelines state that many patients …

SAG Negotiators Talk AI, Pension Plan Changes in 2026 Contract

SAG Negotiators Talk AI, Pension Plan Changes in 2026 Contract

Published by Daniella Wilson

Talking to SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and president Sean Astin in 2026, it’s easy to forget that their union waged a painful, prolonged strike just three years earlier. After emerging from a months-long negotiation with studios and streamers, the pair are complimentary of the studios’ approach under new president Greg Hessinger. Astin asserts that negotiations don’t always have to include brinksmanship. They describe how they leveraged the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ desire for a longer deal term to get AI protections for members and a long-awaited merger for separate pension plans. No taunts aimed at company CEOs or themed picket lines necessary, like during their 2023 strike. “Obviously the companies really wanted a longer term,” says Crabtree-Ireland, who is also the union’s national executive director. “What can we maybe achieve that we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to if we entertain that idea? And that’s how we ultimately ended up there.” There’s a change in tone this year, for sure, but the parties weren’t exactly holding hands and singing kumbaya for …

Crypto legislation faces another hurdle: Labor unions

Crypto legislation faces another hurdle: Labor unions

Published by Sam Flores

Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images The largest labor groups are urging senators to oppose a rules-of-the-road crypto bill scheduled to have an initial vote on Thursday. In a letter and email first seen by CNBC, the AFL-CIO, as well as the Service Employees International Union, American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees warned senators that the bill could jeopardize retirement accounts for millions of workers. The push from unions comes ahead of the Senate Banking Committee’s vote on the crypto bill scheduled for Thursday. Despite Democrats working with Republicans on the bill over the last few months, it is not clear if any Democrats will back the measure given ongoing concerns about security and ethics provisions in the bill. As of Monday evening, the committee had yet to release final legislative text for the bill. The SEIU, AFT, NEA and AFSCME said in the previously unreported letter sent to all senators on Friday that the bill “jeopardizes the stability of workers’ retirement plans, …

What he said … and what he meant – POLITICO

What he said … and what he meant – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

What he meant: Folks, have you noticed there’s a war on? Kicking me out while there’s such instability in the Middle East might not be the best look. ‘Heart of Europe’  What he said: “The last government was defined by breaking our relationship with Europe. This Labour government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship with Europe, by putting Britain at the heart of Europe, so that we are stronger on the economy, stronger on trade, stronger on defense.” What he meant: I’ve got to talk about Europe because otherwise Wes Streeting (a possible leadership contender) will —  but I can’t really announce anything new without complex negotiations with Brussels. Any time to chat later, Ursula?  What he said: “What I want to do is take a big leap forward with the EU-U.K. summit this year and take us closer, both on trade, the economy, defense and security and that will then be a platform on which we can build as we go forward. And as we do that, I strongly believe we’ve got to turn our back on the arguments of the past, not open old grievances.” What he meant: I’m not ruling out rejoining the customs …

I Work in Hollywood. Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Now Secretly Training AI

I Work in Hollywood. Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Now Secretly Training AI

Published by skeptic

People who had previously felt paralyzed by their NDA’s began to talk. Helena, the conflict-avoidant moderator of the Mercor subreddit, worked overtime deleting furious rants from aggrieved workers who delighted in dropping names of the “secret projects”—something explicitly banned by the non-disclosure agreement every tasker must sign before being hired as an Independent Contractor. Elsewhere, on another project, Handsome Swede was not faring well. Felled by Covid, he told his team leaders he could not make the minimum weekly requirement and was swiftly fired. He entered the melee once again to find yet another project. The wages were dropping week by week. When I first started scrolling the contractor jobs in early 2025, companies like Mercor, Handshake, Turing, Task-ify and Outlier were offering $150 an hour for “experts,” $35 to $75 an hour for “generalists.” Today, Mercor says the average hourly rate on its platform is $105. But in my searches across the industry near the start of 2026, the experts were often getting $50 an hour, and the entry-level grunt workers were getting as …

Writers Guild West Staff Strike Officially Over

Writers Guild West Staff Strike Officially Over

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Writers Guild of America West staff strike has officially come to an end. The Writers Guild Staff Union (WGSU) announced on Saturday that 89 percent of participating members voted to greenlight a tentative first contract deal, which concludes the union’s 82-day work stoppage. Seventy-seven union members voted to ratify the three-year deal, while 6 members voted not to ratify. “Together, the members of WGSU secured over $500,000 in wage increases across our 115-plus member bargaining unit,” WGSU bargaining committee co-chair Missy Brown said in a statement. “By August of 2027, WGSU members will see their salaries improve by a minimum of 12 percent across the board.” The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the WGA West for comment. The union’s inaugural agreement, which was announced Friday, resolves two issues that became major sticking points during the staff strike: seniority provisions and a no-strike clause. According to WGSU, the contract calls for the WGA West to take years of service into account during layoffs and “protects concerted activity” with its no-strike clause. The deal additionally offers minimum rate increases …

MrBeast’s ’Beast Games’ Voluntarily Recognizes IATSE Union

MrBeast’s ’Beast Games’ Voluntarily Recognizes IATSE Union

Published by Daniella Wilson

MrBeast, the YouTube superstar known for his challenge videos, has a new trial on his hands: negotiating a union contract with IATSE. The YouTuber’s Amazon Prime Video competition show Beast Games has voluntarily recognized an IATSE union and is negotiating a labor contract, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Negotiations are taking place after a group of crew members on the set of the show’s third season began organizing with the crew union. Filming is primarily taking place in the hometown of Mr Beast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson: Greenville, North Carolina. Beast Games, a spectacle of over-the-top competition, offers 1,000 contestants the chance to win a $5 million prize with other high-value prizes being doled out in the process. THR has reached out to MrBeast and Prime Video for comment. The unionizing push is a high-visibility one for IATSE, which has sought to adapt to a changing entertainment landscape by targeting YouTube and new media content, video games and visual-effects work for organizing. While Beast Games is in effect a traditional competition show produced …

CNN California Governor Debate Makes Little Mention of Hollywood

CNN California Governor Debate Makes Little Mention of Hollywood

Published by Daniella Wilson

If you watched CNN Tuesday night for guidance on how California’s new governor would solve Hollywood’s production crisis, you may as well have changed the channel: The Lakers had more answers than the candidates on the stage. And they got beat by 18. The third and final gubernatorial debate ahead of the June 2 primary saw the issue — which affects the biggest industry in the state’s most populous city — draw precious little airtime. Moderators asked only two of the seven candidates what they would do about the bleeding of production jobs, and neither gave an especially substantive answer. “It’s a competition we can and must win,” Katie Porter said generally, without addressing whether she would push for an uncapping of the current $750 million annual production tax credit, as she has yet to do. “This election is an existential election for Hollywood. So yes, we do need an unlimited, uncapped tax credit. It needs to be above and below the line,” said Antonio Villaraigosa, which he has previously said, and should not just …

Google DeepMind Workers Vote to Unionize Over Military AI Deals

Google DeepMind Workers Vote to Unionize Over Military AI Deals

Published by skeptic

Employees at Google DeepMind in London have voted to unionize as part of a bid to block the AI lab from providing its technology to the US and Israeli militaries. In a letter addressed to Google’s managing director for the UK and Ireland, Debbie Weinstein, the workers asked the company to recognize the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union as joint representatives for DeepMind employees. “Fundamentally, the push for unionization is about holding Google to its own ethical standards on AI, how they monetize it, what the products do, and who they work with,” John Chadfield, national officer for technology at the CWU, tells WIRED. “Through the process of unionization, workers are collectively in a much stronger place to put [demands] to an increasingly deaf management.” The push to unionize began in February 2025, when Google’s parent company Alphabet removed a pledge not to use AI for purposes like weapons development and surveillance from its ethics guidelines, according to a DeepMind employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “A lot of …