http://www.laborcolsultants.com/

Action Resources Labor Consultants, Los Angeles, CA (2026)

12/12/2023

AFL-CIO and Microsoft announce new tech-labor partnership on AI and the future of the workforce.

New AI alliance will educate workers, incorporate labor’s voice in tech development and help shape policy that supports workers.

WASHINGTON — The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced the formation of a new partnership to create an open dialogue to discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) must anticipate the needs of workers and include their voices in its development and implementation. This partnership is the first of its kind between a labor organization and a technology company to focus on AI and will deliver on three goals: (1) sharing in-depth information with labor leaders and workers on AI technology trends; (2) incorporating worker perspectives and expertise in the development of AI technology; and (3) helping shape public policy that supports the technology skills and needs of frontline workers.

11/27/2023

N.J. nurses feel the pain of 115-day strike. Jeffrey Martin hasn’t seen a paycheck in more than 100 days.

His health benefits were canceled three months ago.

So the nurse at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital had a choice: pay his rent or find health insurance. He decided to go without health care.

“The last three months have been pretty difficult,” he said, a hint of exhaustion in his voice.

Read the full article at www.NJ.com

11/24/2023

Action Resources gives thanks today and everyday! HAPPY THANKSGIVING from our family (and work family) to yours! 🍁🍽🦃

11/22/2023

Volkswagen becomes the latest automaker to hike wages for U.S. factory workers.

Volkswagen said on Wednesday that it would hike salaries for production workers at its Tennessee-based Chattanooga assembly plant by 11%, weeks after the United Auto Workers union won significant pay and benefit hikes from the Detroit Three automakers.

The German company and other non-union automakers in the U.S. have come under increased pressure to improve pay and benefits following the record contracts achieved by the UAW in late October after thousands of its members went on a six-week targeted strike.

Japanese automakers Honda Motor and Toyota have raised wages for non-union U.S. factory workers in recent weeks amid signs that the union is turning its attention to organizing the workforce at foreign-owned and Tesla auto plants.

Hyundai Motor has also announced a 25% increase over the next four years for non-union production workers in Alabama and Georgia.

UAW President Shawn Fain told Reuters last week that the union was getting expressions of interest in organizing from many Tesla workers.

The Elon Musk-led company, which enjoys an operating profit advantage over other automakers, has not announced any salary hikes in the U.S.

Volkswagen’s pay increase is effective from December, with a compressed wage progression timeline beginning in February.

11/01/2023

Employers are pouring money into costly benefits that workers don’t use—here’s what employees actually want.

Employers and their workers can’t seem to find common ground on benefits. While 78% of employers believe their workers are highly satisfied with their benefits, only 59% of employees express the same, according to Aflac’s newest WorkForces Report, released this week.

The discrepancy underscores the gap between employers, who want a high ROI on costly benefits, and what resources employees will use.

“Employers are spending money simply because of increased health care costs. But employees are saying, ‘Yeah, that’s not necessarily what we want, and it’s not necessarily what we need [or] would prefer,’” says Jeri Hawthorne, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Aflac.

It’s not just benefits costs where employers stand to lose money—unsatisfied employees may look for jobs that provide more desirable benefits packages. Just 48% of employees say they are confident that their employer cares, a sharp decline from 56% in 2022 and 59% in 2021. And 60% of workers who think their employer doesn’t care about their well-being say they are at least somewhat likely to look for a new job next year.

Workers may even be willing to make a trade-off in compensation to get the benefits they want: 53% of employees say they are at least somewhat likely to accept a position with lower pay but better benefits. The key for employers wishing to retain these employees is understanding what “better benefits” mean to their workers.

“It’s the focus of the company and the HR leaders of those organizations to say, ‘They’re saying better, what exactly does that mean when we’re thinking about offerings that employees actually want?” says Hawthorne.

Visit www.Fortune.com for the full story.

10/12/2023

‘How Do We Never Do This Again?’: Hollywood Grapples With the Consequences of a 148-Day WGA Strike

Why did it take five months?

That’s the vexing question that entertainment industry insiders are wrestling with even as they cheer the end of the Writers Guild of America strike. Union leaders said it again and again all summer — that Hollywood’s system for collective bargaining was “broken.” Turns out they were right.

The economic pain spread across the entertainment industry and beyond by showbiz’s summer of labor strife has been devastating. The situation demands both urgent action and long-term study because the industry dynamics that spurred the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are likely to persist in the near term. For the sake of avoiding more debilitating work stoppages, leaders from labor and management need to undertake a thoughtful and methodical review of decades-old contract terms and options for updating the underlying economic constructs of complicated compensation formulas. It’s a process that will also demand the most precious of resources in business — good faith, buy-in and trust — from stakeholders on all sides of the bargaining table.

09/28/2023

Agreement on Key AI Terms Leads to Writer’s Strike Resolution: What Employers Need to Know

After nearly 5 months of heated negotiations and picketing, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) finally reached tentative consensus with the Hollywood studios on a new, three-year agreement, bringing an end to its strike early Wednesday morning. If WGA union members ratify the Tentative Agreement next week, the new agreement will usher in a new wave of protections for writers against the perceived threats posed by the increasing use of artificial intelligence and the concern writers will be replaced by Generative AI (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT. What do employers need to know about this resolution?
Key AI-Related Deal Points
Writers are expected to ratify the agreement as they achieved practically everything they asked for, particularly those issues involving AI-related terms. Specifically, the Tentative Agreement provides that:
AI may not write or rewrite original material, and AI-generated material will not be considered source material under the agreement, meaning that AI-generated material cannot be used to undermine a writer’s credit or separated rights.
If the employer consents and the writer follows applicable employer policies, a writer can choose to use AI when performing writing services. However, the company cannot require the writer to use AI software (e.g., ChatGPT) when performing writing services.
The company must disclose to the writer if any materials given to the writer have been generated by AI or incorporate AI-generated material.
The WGA reserves the right to assert writers’ material was used to train AI which has been prohibited by the collective bargaining agreement or other law.

However, such clear distrust of AI and apprehension of utilizing it in the workplace is certainly not limited to writers. ecent polls show that less than half of all employees are willing to trust AI at work. Yet, more than 35% of all companies presently use AI in their business in some manner. With significant, demonstrated costs savings and efficiencies and often better experiences for customers, the meteoric rise of AI in the workplace is all but certain to continue.

09/12/2023

Union workers' increases fell behind non-union workers during the pandemic. A tight labor market pushed non-union employers to push raises in total compensation higher than unionized employers. Total compensation for non-union workers increased more than union workers during the pandemic.

Some interesting data in a Wall Street Journal article this morning about unions flexing their muscles during a tight labor market reveals that increases in total compensation for union workers lagged behind total compensation increases for non-union workers during the pandemic.

“In some cases,” the WSJ notes, “the unions’ latest gains just catch up to pay increases that nonunion Americans landed since the pandemic hit the U.S. economy in 2020.”

Wages and benefits for nonunion workers were up 15.8% from the end of 2019 through June, compared with a 12.2% gain for unionized workers, according to the Labor Department. Union workers earn more on average but accounted for just about 10% of the workforce in 2022, a record-low share.

09/04/2023

Today could also be called TEAM WORK DAY!

08/04/2023

PBGC funneled another $1 billion in taxpayer funds to three failing union pensions this week.

As of August 1st, nearly $52.2 billion in taxpayer monies have been doled out to failing union pension plans.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced it had approved tax-payer funded Special Financial Assistance (SFA) for three more failing union multi-employer pension funds this week.

As of August 1, 2023, PBGC has approved nearly $52.2 billion in SFA to plans that cover over 751,000 workers, retirees, and beneficiaries, the PBGC stated in it press releases.

07/24/2023

Income Losses Stemming From Forced Unionism Continue to Soar.

Year after year, far more taxpayers are moving out of forced-unionism states than are moving into them. They are taking their income with them. And forced-unionism states’ income losses due to taxpayer out-migration are soaring.

For decades, states like New York, California and Illinois have evidently been paying a high price for allowing dues-hungry union bosses to continue getting workers fired for refusal to bankroll their organizations.

Year after year, far more taxpayers have been leaving forced-unionism states than moving into them.

The cumulative loss of taxpayers has been cutting into their revenue bases.

Recently released data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) indicate the cost of forced unionism soared by more than 50% in the Tax Filing Year 2020, as compared to the year before.

National Right to Work Committee President Mark Mix commented:

“It shouldn’t require fiscal catastrophes to persuade state elected officials to stop hurting the vast majority of their constituents just so the special privileges of a relative handful of union bosses can be perpetuated and even expanded.

“But state insolvency may well arrive before Big Labor politicians in states like New York, California and Illinois acknowledge the truth about the devastating effects of forced unionism.”

The facts speak for themselves.

As a group, the 23 states that still lack Right to Work laws lost a net total of $73.3 billion in adjusted gross income (AGI) in 2020. That’s a 52% greater loss than what these same states endured in 2019.

Data furnished by the IRS’s Statistics of Income (SOI) division make it possible to calculate the sum total of wages, salaries, and other income taxpayers take with them when they move from one state to another.

07/19/2023

Hollywood studios say they offered actors $1 billion in gains before strike.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — Major film and television studios offered Hollywood actors more than $1 billion in higher compensation and enhanced benefits before the SAG-AFTRA union called a strike last week, a group that represents media companies said on Monday.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which negotiates on behalf of Netflix Inc, Walt Disney Co, Warner Bros Discovery and others, said SAG-AFTRA "continues to mischaracterize the negotiations."

SAG-AFTRA called a strike last Thursday after union negotiators said they were unable to reach an agreement with studios on a new three-year contract with higher benefits and limits on the use of their images by artificial intelligence.

"The deal that SAG-AFTRA walked away from on July 12 is worth more than $1 billion in wage increases, pension and health contributions and residual increases and includes first-of-their-kind protections over its three-year term, including expressly with respect to AI," the AMPTP said in a statement.

"For SAG-AFTRA to assert that we have not been responsive to the needs of its membership is disingenuous at best," the AMPTP added.

Action Resources Labor Consultants

12/12/2023

11/27/2023

11/24/2023

11/22/2023

11/01/2023

10/12/2023

09/28/2023

09/12/2023

09/04/2023

08/04/2023

07/24/2023

07/19/2023

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category