Unions Disagree on AI
The Hollywood and UPS unions have taken very different approaches to accommodating or fighting the rise of AI with dramatically different outcomes
Netflix is hiring and paying really well for a ML Platform Product Manager. The compensation offered ranges from $300k-$900k per year. That’s pretty good! Of course, to get this job you’d have to be insanely well qualified and willing to deal with the notoriously intense Netflix culture.
But honestly, this salary isn’t that unusual in the tech world. People with outstanding AI and Machine Learning skills get paid a lot as function of supply and demand. Top data scientists regularly earn well into the seven figures because one of their models can add eight or nine figures to the company’s bottom line.
This particular role is getting unusual attention and notoriety because of what it’s juxtaposed against: the writers and actors strikes in Hollywood. A central element of the demands from both the writers and the actors is that movie and TV studios won’t use AI to reduce the demand for work from human talent. As it stands now, the writers and actors are on strike while no negotiations are planned - portending a prolonged work stoppage. Meanwhile, AI is doubling down on AI.
Elsewhere, the Teamsters Union reached an agreement with UPS to avoid a strike and significantly raise the pay and improve working conditions for UPS drivers. Everyone seems happy!
The key difference between these two situations is the decision by the unions to make AI hill they are willing to die on. There are versions of the multiverse in which the Teamsters absolutely made the prohibition of self-driving delivery vehicles and drones a central element of their demands. This would have likely led to an impasse, a prolonged work stoppage, and crippling blow to the U.S. economy. However, Teamsters leadership didn’t see this as a winning battle and chose to use their bargaining chips elsewhere - mostly wages. The leaders of the Writers and Actors unions have come to different conclusions. And here we are.
90% of the U.S. workforce is not unionized and very much exposed to the advancement and capabilities of AI in changing the way they work. Feels like that’s the way the wind is blowing every, except in Hollywood, except at the Netflix Headquarters.