WEBVTT

1
00:00:04.879 --> 00:00:08.640
All right, welcome back and joining
us now is the former political director of

2
00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:13.919
the Teamsters Union, Nicole Brenner Schmidtz, and I wanted to get her on

3
00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.760
to talk, especially about what's happening
in Hollywood with the writers and the actors

4
00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:22.920
and the sticking point of how artificial
intelligence is there. But there's a much

5
00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:28.000
broader issue that is a product of
the inflation that we're just talking to Tony

6
00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:32.679
Arnament about, and that is the
impact on wages and how do wages keep

7
00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:36.679
up with inflation. So that's why
we're seeing this massive number of strikes.

8
00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:39.799
Thank you for joining us, Nicole, appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for

9
00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:42.640
having me. Let's talk a little
bit about before we get into Hollywood and

10
00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:46.039
AI, let's talk a little bit
about what's going on with UPS. What

11
00:00:46.479 --> 00:00:49.880
is the current status of that.
I thought they had changed a new look.

12
00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:52.960
Looks like they've headed off the strike
or is that still something that is

13
00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:57.679
in the works. It looks like
they've reached a tentative agreement, so that's

14
00:00:57.799 --> 00:01:00.759
great news. Looks like there won't
be a strike. Still has to be

15
00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:06.120
a vote amongst the membership, but
looks like they've come to a deal and

16
00:01:06.280 --> 00:01:10.040
should be moving forward with that,
and of course what I saw put out

17
00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:12.599
with something like a total pay package
for drivers or something like one hundred and

18
00:01:12.599 --> 00:01:17.879
seventy thousand dollars, which looks very
attractive, but of course, if depending

19
00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:19.280
on what inflation is in a few
years, I could look like nothing.

20
00:01:21.040 --> 00:01:25.480
What other aspects of UPS is that
I'm because that's just one aspect of people

21
00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:29.760
who work for UPS. What about
warehouse workers and other employees? Is that

22
00:01:30.120 --> 00:01:34.840
part of it as well? Well? This was a contract for the workers

23
00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:40.959
who are members of the Teamster's union, so it's probreliminary the drivers. There

24
00:01:40.959 --> 00:01:45.239
are some other workers that could be
included in different places. But this is

25
00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:49.040
the largest national contract in the country, which I think a lot of people

26
00:01:49.079 --> 00:01:53.519
don't realize. So many contracts like
what we're seeing in LA are really you

27
00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:59.519
know, it's hotel by hotel,
and this is national contract. So there

28
00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:01.599
are a lot of things at stake, not just wages. That's what of

29
00:02:01.640 --> 00:02:07.400
course gets the most attention when people
are taking a look at contract negotiations and

30
00:02:07.479 --> 00:02:14.520
observing it. But there's pensions,
there's benefits, they're safe working environments.

31
00:02:15.400 --> 00:02:17.840
All of those were on the table, and like you said, that's why

32
00:02:17.960 --> 00:02:22.520
there are timelines on these contracts,
right, it's a contract for the next

33
00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:27.000
however many years because things change and
you need to go back to the bargaining

34
00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:30.400
table and see if this is still
a contract that makes sense for those workers.

35
00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:35.639
They're what makes UPS tick and what
makes them be able to have such

36
00:02:35.639 --> 00:02:39.120
a large profit margin. Yeah.
I've talked to a Darrell Slinty about this

37
00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:44.800
and he said last year this would
be the year of labor unions and all

38
00:02:44.840 --> 00:02:47.759
the rest it because of so much
inflation that is being cooked into all this

39
00:02:47.879 --> 00:02:52.439
and that has already hit us in
so many different ways and everybody is getting

40
00:02:52.479 --> 00:02:57.400
behind. And this are there going
to be other ups? Is really big?

41
00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:04.360
We now have an economy that is
heavily done by internet purchases and deliveries

42
00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:07.199
and that type of thing. Are
there more industries where we're going to see

43
00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:10.280
this? UPS being the biggest one? But are there some others that are

44
00:03:10.319 --> 00:03:15.120
down the line that we're going to
see that may result in disruption if they

45
00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:19.319
can't find an agreement like a FedEx
or something like that. Well, FedEx

46
00:03:19.400 --> 00:03:23.479
isn't union, so it'll be.
But here's what it does do. When

47
00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:29.599
the workers at one company get a
certain agreed upon wage and benefits. It

48
00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:34.000
should in fact elevate the entire industry. So that's something that you know,

49
00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:37.719
is really important to remember as to
why we have unique contracts in this country

50
00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:43.159
because it does help keep a middle
class. It's not just because of inflation.

51
00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:46.840
I mean, certainly there's there's a
factor there, but this is something

52
00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:51.240
that workers need to come to the
table. They're making sure that they have

53
00:03:51.479 --> 00:03:54.879
working environments that are safe, We're
making sure that we have those standards,

54
00:03:55.120 --> 00:04:00.199
and we're making sure that they're being
paid a fair wage. You should be

55
00:04:00.199 --> 00:04:03.479
able to work a full time job
and not live in poverty. That's not

56
00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:09.960
crazy demand in this country. It's
okay to make sure that we're making sure

57
00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:13.400
that what makes this country tick.
The people who are cleaning your hotel rooms,

58
00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:16.560
people that are driving your packages can
live a nice life with their family,

59
00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:19.279
and they can put food on the
table and get a good education for

60
00:04:19.319 --> 00:04:23.560
their kids and go on vacation once
a year. I mean, this is

61
00:04:23.560 --> 00:04:27.519
what the American dream is about.
And if we continue to allow it to

62
00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:32.120
be just a huge profit margin at
companies at the expense of the workers that

63
00:04:32.160 --> 00:04:36.639
are delivering the goods, that's a
giant problem for our country overall, and

64
00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:44.480
of course we saw in the pandemic
and subsequent parts of that, we've seen

65
00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:46.800
a lot of billionaires made. But
in general, when you look at CEO

66
00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:54.879
pay and the multiples of CEO pay
to the average salary of the workers,

67
00:04:54.879 --> 00:05:00.240
it really has exploded as well in
terms of multiples. Probably nowhere is more

68
00:05:00.279 --> 00:05:03.600
evident than in Hollywood, where there's
this concentration there. Let's talk a little

69
00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:06.920
bit about that and about the issues. Earlier in the program, I was

70
00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:14.040
talking about the concerns of Screenwriters Guild
in terms of being replaced by Chat GPT.

71
00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:16.639
I mean we're not just talking again
about wages, we're talking about them

72
00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:21.279
completely being replaced, and so there's
issues. The actors are concerned about that

73
00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:27.560
as well. But screen Screenwriters Guild
said they won't even talk to us about

74
00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:31.160
that, which indicates that they're pretty
hardcore in terms of having future scripts being

75
00:05:31.199 --> 00:05:34.360
written by Chat GPT or something like
that. Tell us a little bit about

76
00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:39.160
what's going on in Hollywood from your
perspective, Yeah, I mean, I

77
00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:42.639
think, just to touch quickly on
what you said about COVID, I mean

78
00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:45.959
it also showed us what are the
essential workers in this country, right,

79
00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:50.000
we were all applauding them, the
grocery stores, the nurses, and that's

80
00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:55.680
who we need to make sure is
able to have good contracts and fair working

81
00:05:55.759 --> 00:06:00.519
environments going forward. But Hollywood specifically, they see this AI probably them coming

82
00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:02.399
their way, and they think what
happens is a lot of times when people

83
00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:09.199
here Hollywood's on strike, you think
of George Clooney and Julia Roberts or maybe

84
00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:13.160
leading myself a little bout who the
superstars are, but you think of,

85
00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:17.759
you know, these very wealthy making
mega millions per movie. But that's not

86
00:06:18.319 --> 00:06:23.160
the bulk of Hollywood, and it's
not the bulk of the writers. For

87
00:06:23.240 --> 00:06:27.600
sure. These are a lot of
people who are working hard on show to

88
00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:30.920
show and we've seen, you know, there used to be a pretty standard

89
00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:36.279
you had a comedy it was twenty
two episodes, or a drama that was

90
00:06:36.439 --> 00:06:42.040
you know, twenty something episodes a
season, and now with Netflix and Hulu,

91
00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:45.839
I mean you get seasons that are
eight episodes long. Well that's not

92
00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:49.480
as much writing. So there's a
decrease in work per series that you're on

93
00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:53.879
in a lot of ways. And
then what you said, which is AI

94
00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:59.360
is coming and we haven't even really
even seen the beginning of it yet,

95
00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:02.600
but there is a fear that they
are going to use that instead of people

96
00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:08.360
for a lot of this writing,
and that would be a shame on the

97
00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:15.600
creativity. The other thing that Hollywood
is really looking at is these residual checks,

98
00:07:15.720 --> 00:07:19.759
right, I mean, these things
are being streamed over and over and

99
00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:27.639
over now on people's who Lose and
whatnot, and they're not getting a real

100
00:07:27.680 --> 00:07:30.959
paycheck from that. I mean,
there was an actor that was talking the

101
00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:35.879
other day and he's not an actor
who maybe definitely knows isn't a super uber

102
00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:41.519
famous, he's been on some shows
and he got over fifty residual checks and

103
00:07:41.519 --> 00:07:46.759
it totaled like eighty six dollars.
So this is the conversation they're having at

104
00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:51.519
the table. And now the actors
have joined the writers in solidarity because frankly,

105
00:07:51.600 --> 00:08:00.199
that strengthens their position, and the
actors know how crucial the writers are

106
00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:05.040
to their craft and their work.
So it's good to see the solidarity happening

107
00:08:05.079 --> 00:08:11.160
here. But AI is something we're
going to be looking at in a lot

108
00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:15.439
of different industries. Starting to get
the attention here, but that's going to

109
00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:18.240
be I mean, we've seen it
in grocery stores right to TA get to

110
00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:22.199
that place. How many cashiers are
there now? Not as many because you've

111
00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:26.680
got twenty self checkouts that one person
watches. So we need to have a

112
00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:35.000
conversation about what are AI replacing and
what does that mean for a workforce in

113
00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:37.639
America. Yeah, when you're talking
about grocery stores, I think we're gonna

114
00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:41.639
see that escalator. I just saw
that when Dixie and another chain were bought

115
00:08:41.639 --> 00:08:43.159
by Aldis. Now all these is
not all that big in the United States,

116
00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:46.559
but they're very big in the UK
and in Europe. And they have

117
00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:52.399
of course Corbin I forget which one
I get them mixed up two brothers,

118
00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:54.480
one as Piers, the others Jeremy. One of them went into an Aldies

119
00:08:54.600 --> 00:08:58.759
and they didn't want him to pay
with cash. You don't have to be

120
00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.039
actually this, and they've got other
things. You know, they're getting very

121
00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:09.159
highly automated where you enter in and
you've got biometric ID or something like that,

122
00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:11.679
or you don't get into the store
and then it follows you around and

123
00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:16.399
charges you automatically. That's the type
of thing with ALDI buying domestic grocery store

124
00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:20.000
chains. I think we're really going
to see that proliferate. And so that's,

125
00:09:20.080 --> 00:09:22.799
as you point out, that's going
to be another big issue there.

126
00:09:22.840 --> 00:09:28.399
But getting back to the Hollywood stuff, it is and when we look at

127
00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:31.879
this, as you point out when
you sent this to me, you said,

128
00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:35.399
there's one point seven million people outside
of California. That's the other thing.

129
00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:37.960
You know, people think, oh, you know George Clooney or whatever,

130
00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:41.679
But it's not just the big stars
that you see, the multi million

131
00:09:41.720 --> 00:09:45.960
stuff in Hollywood. The film industry, a lot of that is outside of

132
00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:50.759
California. One point seven million people
who work outside the state one hundred and

133
00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:54.519
fifty eight billion dollars a year in
wages, and so it's a very big

134
00:09:54.559 --> 00:09:58.960
industry, is not limited to one
town or one state. Earlier in the

135
00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:01.279
show, when I was talking about
artificial intelligence, I pointed out that in

136
00:10:01.320 --> 00:10:05.519
New York, there's a law that's
been introduced saying that if you're going to

137
00:10:05.639 --> 00:10:09.399
use AI to replace some of these
actors, then you're not going to get

138
00:10:09.399 --> 00:10:13.159
the tax breaks that they used to
incentivize people during production into their states.

139
00:10:13.159 --> 00:10:16.679
So there's different things like that,
and they're starting to happen. Are we

140
00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:20.440
seeing that in other places as well
that you're aware of. I don't know

141
00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:24.080
that we've seen it official in other
places, but I think we will see

142
00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:33.960
that a tactic that some states take. There is certainly growing conversation happening in

143
00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:39.799
state legislatures and in Congress about are
we going to be able to wrap ourselves

144
00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:46.480
and laws around AI before it's too
late, frankly, because this is something

145
00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:48.919
we need to catch them. We're
still catching up in some ways on the

146
00:10:48.919 --> 00:10:52.320
Internet at this point. I mean
a lot of times you see new laws

147
00:10:52.600 --> 00:10:58.840
can you share certain images of someone
and the law says it's okay. We

148
00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:03.720
sort of know intuitively the ick factor
and that you know that's not maybe something

149
00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:11.200
that the person gave as what they'd
want to share with the public. But

150
00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:13.120
the law hasn't caught up with the
fact that we have phones that snap a

151
00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:18.519
picture and send in text and can
you know, it just hasn't caught up

152
00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:20.559
to that. So I think we're
going to see that be a situation with

153
00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:28.639
AI in many different ways, but
in this particular conversation as to the jobs,

154
00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:33.159
but the actors are very worried about
can their likeness be used without their

155
00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:41.120
consent in AI? So this is
something that we need to stop acting like

156
00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:48.240
is in our future and start having
real conversations and discussions and hearings about right

157
00:11:48.279 --> 00:11:52.000
now. Yeah, I talked about
about a decade ago. I did a

158
00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:54.720
reference to early in the show.
I did report about a movie called I

159
00:11:54.759 --> 00:11:58.840
think it was titled The Congress,
but it was about Robin Wright. And

160
00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:03.320
she made this deal with a studio
that they could digitize her essentially and you

161
00:12:03.320 --> 00:12:07.919
know, very deeply digitize her entire
image, her voice, everything, her

162
00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:11.759
persona, and then they would own
her. And it's kind of interesting when

163
00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:15.240
you think about that. We haven't
seen that yet, but we're right at

164
00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:18.279
the cusp of something like that being
done, and they could kind of see

165
00:12:18.279 --> 00:12:22.679
that coming about a decade ago.
When you talk about residuals versus the company's

166
00:12:22.759 --> 00:12:28.799
copyrights, we see that the corporations
get their copyrights extended and extended and extended.

167
00:12:28.840 --> 00:12:31.159
These things have gone longer and longer
and longer. Used to be that

168
00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:33.240
it was tied to the person's life, and then a little bit beyond that

169
00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:35.879
for their errors and that type of
stuff, and now you know, they've

170
00:12:35.879 --> 00:12:39.720
extended it quite a bit below beyond
that. But this is all something that

171
00:12:39.799 --> 00:12:43.840
is really being done to the benefit
of the corporations, not so much to

172
00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:50.360
other people. And as they own
these types of things, own people's images,

173
00:12:50.440 --> 00:12:56.159
just like they have done with copyright
music or copyrights of film and that

174
00:12:56.200 --> 00:13:00.639
type of thing. We're going to
see that to an increasing degree. And

175
00:13:00.679 --> 00:13:03.120
I think it's kind of interesting as
you're talking about technology, how it is

176
00:13:03.240 --> 00:13:09.759
rapidly advancing and people are kind of
on their back heel in Hollywood in terms

177
00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:13.120
of the writers and the actors.
You know, how do we how do

178
00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:16.360
we keep from all this stuff accruing
to the corporations. We're not getting our

179
00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:20.879
residuals, but they're getting their copyright
residuals, if you will, extended into

180
00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:24.799
perpetuity. But you know, you've
got streaming, which is out there,

181
00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:28.720
You've got and that's changed things quite
a bit. And then you've also got

182
00:13:30.679 --> 00:13:35.360
kind of the death of cable and
even broadcast linear TV is really collapsing,

183
00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:41.240
so the distribution channels are really changing
rapidly as well. All of this is

184
00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:43.840
in a state of flux, you
know, whether you're talking about residuals and

185
00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:50.480
copyrights or the way that people are
viewing the information as well. Then as

186
00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:56.440
people, actors and writers being completely
replaced by artificial intelligence. How far away

187
00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:00.799
are they from reaching an agreement.
There's so many different issues here. It

188
00:14:00.840 --> 00:14:07.360
doesn't sound like they're really close yet
coated. But you might even see more

189
00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:13.639
people sort of join the solidarity,
different production crews. We'll see what Broadway

190
00:14:13.720 --> 00:14:18.200
does. I mean, they could
even grow this. There's radio that's not

191
00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:22.399
that it is represented by unions,
but not on the strike right now,

192
00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:28.080
like at NPR and places, So
we may see it grow. Dad could

193
00:14:28.120 --> 00:14:33.960
force the hand a little more.
We may see them start to make some

194
00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:37.559
gains at the negotiating table. I
do think it's great that a lot of

195
00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:41.399
the quote unquote mega stars have given
funds to the strike fund. A strike

196
00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:50.320
fund is absolutely key to if a
union is able to stand up and stay

197
00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:54.399
on strike because a lot of these
people, again like they're not getting their

198
00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:58.320
benefits. They're obviously not making a
salary, and the strike fund is able

199
00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:03.519
to help sustain them and their families
through this time. Yeah, that's been

200
00:15:03.559 --> 00:15:07.480
one of the practical issues about strikes, the fact that you know, if

201
00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:09.360
it's an extended strike, even if
you get some gains that may have been

202
00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:15.320
wiped out by the amount of time
that you're out when you when you look

203
00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:20.679
at how we move forward with us. This has been a big agenda for

204
00:15:20.720 --> 00:15:24.120
a very long time. And I've
been talking about this for a very long

205
00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:28.120
time, universal basic income and the
statements being made by a lot of people

206
00:15:28.440 --> 00:15:33.159
in the tech industry. But even
when Michael Bloomberg was running for president,

207
00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:35.960
he made those statements and everybody,
so, look, he just call farmers

208
00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:39.519
stupid. Well, he didn't really
call farmers stupid. He was talking about

209
00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:45.320
how farmers were replaced and they went
to factory workers, and he said,

210
00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:48.200
and the factory workers have their thing, but we can replace the farmers.

211
00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:50.720
We can replace the factory workers.
And he said, right now, we're

212
00:15:50.720 --> 00:15:54.399
looking at how we're going to replace
everybody. When you start talking about solidarity

213
00:15:54.440 --> 00:15:58.000
with other groups, he said,
we can replace everybody. Our only issue

214
00:15:58.120 --> 00:16:02.600
is how do we keep that pacified
so they don't come after us with guillotines.

215
00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:06.320
So that's what he said. And
so this has been a process where

216
00:16:06.360 --> 00:16:11.679
you look at Bloomberg or you look
at Elon Musk, they've talked about massive

217
00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:18.120
unemployment. I remember about a decade
ago there was a South Korea survey and

218
00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:25.639
they were talking about how much unemployment
would happen with artificial intelligence replacing doctors and

219
00:16:25.720 --> 00:16:29.720
lawyers. It was up in sixty
seventy percent range for transportation workers that we

220
00:16:29.720 --> 00:16:33.039
were talking about earlier. You know, that's a I don't know if that

221
00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:37.639
was a part of the UPS strike, but the issue of self driving delivery

222
00:16:37.720 --> 00:16:41.600
vehicles or drones or anything like that, that is also something that has been

223
00:16:41.639 --> 00:16:48.039
on the horizon, and they've had
a target on pretty much every industry where

224
00:16:48.039 --> 00:16:52.039
there's transportation, where there's white collar
jobs, blue collar jobs, they're looking

225
00:16:52.039 --> 00:16:57.879
to replace everybody with artificial intelligence and
robotics. So I am wondering if this

226
00:16:57.919 --> 00:17:02.320
was going to be the part of
something that is much bigger. Did the

227
00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:07.599
self driving issues and drone things come
into play in the UPS contract as far

228
00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:11.960
as you know, I don't know
if they were part of the contracts.

229
00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:18.640
I wasn't in the negotiations, but
it's certainly something that every transportation union,

230
00:17:18.839 --> 00:17:25.960
from the pilots to TWU to be
to you are concerned and working on and

231
00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:30.480
having conversations about. There is a
concern they've tried to congress, for example,

232
00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:37.960
is trying to make trains only have
one man one person in the engineer

233
00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:40.920
seat, right, and there's a
build like calling making sure that there's always

234
00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:45.400
a two man crew because there is
a safety element to this, is there.

235
00:17:48.359 --> 00:17:51.680
It's a concern across the board,
right. I mean it's also so

236
00:17:51.759 --> 00:17:52.880
long till I think they're going to
try and tell you, well, let's

237
00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:59.880
have robots serve the coffee on the
airplanes. Well let's let's talk about this

238
00:18:00.039 --> 00:18:02.480
when they when the robots think it's
a good idea to open the door.

239
00:18:03.400 --> 00:18:08.359
Also, they're not a waitress in
the air. They are a safety element

240
00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:14.319
to your flight as well. But
we're continue to see this and you know

241
00:18:14.359 --> 00:18:17.839
you mentioned it's I think people really
place it in blue collar, right.

242
00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:21.680
They think of the factories, they
think of farmers, and that's true,

243
00:18:22.440 --> 00:18:29.319
but it is a probably there's a
possibility that it's the lawyers and they're having

244
00:18:29.400 --> 00:18:33.799
robots right the bulk of the briefs, you know, if they're gonna if

245
00:18:33.799 --> 00:18:38.319
the doctors have become basically a lookup
table for a pharmaceutical drug, which is

246
00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:41.400
a lot of them operate. You
know, you come in, you got

247
00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:45.319
ex symptoms. You know, you
could easily have a AI that's going to

248
00:18:45.359 --> 00:18:48.799
do as good a better job than
the doctor is going to do of that.

249
00:18:48.039 --> 00:18:51.279
And that was the thing that surprised
me when I saw it a decade

250
00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:53.440
ago, the fact that for a
lot of white collar jobs, they saw

251
00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:56.599
that as and now we're starting to
see that with the writing and other things

252
00:18:56.640 --> 00:19:02.160
like that, they saw them as
more vulner bowl than the blue collar jobs

253
00:19:02.240 --> 00:19:07.359
to being replaced. And so it
is going to be a major disruption in

254
00:19:07.359 --> 00:19:11.599
our society in addition to what we're
seeing with inflation. That is I think

255
00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:15.960
the bigger issue, and that is
the artificial intelligence thing. And they have

256
00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:18.440
been looking at this for the longest
time. I remember when Nuber was in

257
00:19:18.480 --> 00:19:23.119
its early days and you had Travis
Kalownik was still the CEO, and he

258
00:19:23.200 --> 00:19:27.839
said, the reason our cars are
expensive is because of that other dude in

259
00:19:27.839 --> 00:19:30.799
the car with you, and we're
going to make him go away. So

260
00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:34.039
they got people who are you working
as a gig job and supplying their own

261
00:19:34.079 --> 00:19:37.480
car, maintaining their own car.
Meanwhile they're working on how they're going to

262
00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:41.759
slip that person's throat. But we've
seen some really bad results. As you're

263
00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:45.640
talking about the robot serving coffee on
the airplane, we've seen some really horrific

264
00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:52.799
things already with the self driving cars, and they just had a big traffic

265
00:19:52.839 --> 00:19:56.680
jam I talked about yesterday in San
Francisco. The people there hate those driverless

266
00:19:56.680 --> 00:20:03.960
taxis. They're creating safety issues around
fires and other things and creating massive traffic

267
00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:07.759
jams going particular places and just stopping
and none of them will move. And

268
00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:12.720
so there's a lot of issues with
that, besides replacing everybody and just putting

269
00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:17.720
us all on some kind of a
government handout welfare check, which people don't

270
00:20:17.720 --> 00:20:25.559
want right exactly. It's complicated,
and we can't keep putting our heads in

271
00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:30.039
the sand and ignoring it. It
has to be something that we're taking a

272
00:20:30.039 --> 00:20:34.160
look at, and we have to
look at it with an imagination what could

273
00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:41.359
be in ten twenty years, because
there are a lot of safety and danger

274
00:20:41.559 --> 00:20:47.079
concerns when it comes to this too, because they don't they know how to

275
00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:52.519
set it up so that it starts
learning. But even the scientists building it

276
00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:59.759
are not completely clear on what point
it starts to teach itself more and what

277
00:21:00.079 --> 00:21:06.400
exponentials that happens. And we don't
even know how it's doing that. You

278
00:21:06.440 --> 00:21:08.720
know, it's like it sounds like
a sci fi movie, but it's not.

279
00:21:08.759 --> 00:21:12.279
It's like, at what point do
they does the the AI thing,

280
00:21:12.359 --> 00:21:15.480
the robot or whatever, say oh, well, this is the danger and

281
00:21:15.559 --> 00:21:21.119
it's the people. And when it
does with that and can we control it?

282
00:21:21.400 --> 00:21:23.839
I mean, I know that sounds
like an insane Hollywood movie, but

283
00:21:25.119 --> 00:21:30.039
we're closer to that than I think
people really realize. Well, you know,

284
00:21:30.079 --> 00:21:32.240
we saw that already happened in the
last couple of years. You know,

285
00:21:32.279 --> 00:21:36.440
we gotta we gotta here's our here's
our problem, and we're not sure

286
00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:38.000
the solution, but we gotta it
really quiet quickly. We gotta do it

287
00:21:38.039 --> 00:21:41.599
at warp speed. We don't know
if this thing works, we don't know

288
00:21:41.599 --> 00:21:44.559
if it's dangerous, but we gotta
do at warp speed. And you wind

289
00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:48.519
up having some people who make a
tremendous, obscene amount of money and other

290
00:21:48.559 --> 00:21:51.759
people who get hurt. And this, I think is is being played out

291
00:21:51.799 --> 00:21:55.279
in this You know, we have
all these different nightmare scenarios that people have

292
00:21:55.359 --> 00:22:00.319
always talked about about runaway technology and
about you know, the terminator type of

293
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:04.640
technology, Skynet becoming self aware and
coming after us. I just talked today

294
00:22:06.160 --> 00:22:10.400
about some new information that shows that
it might just go the opposite direction.

295
00:22:10.759 --> 00:22:15.480
If it starts the more content that
it puts out on the Internet that is

296
00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:19.160
synthetic, as it starts to read
its own content, it within about five

297
00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:23.279
generations of synthetic stuff. It's kind
of like cannibalism is kind of like the

298
00:22:23.880 --> 00:22:30.640
Kreutz failed Yakov disease or mad cow
disease. It's feeding on itself and it

299
00:22:30.680 --> 00:22:37.119
just becomes incredibly stupid and instead of
becoming incredibly smart, it becomes incredibly stupid

300
00:22:37.160 --> 00:22:41.200
and useless. So that was a
hopeful bit of information. Maybe this thing

301
00:22:41.319 --> 00:22:45.839
isn't going to become super intelligent.
Maybe it's going to become super stupid.

302
00:22:45.599 --> 00:22:51.000
And in the interim of either two
of these scenarios fulfilling themselves, you're going

303
00:22:51.079 --> 00:22:55.559
to displace people out of jobs.
You're going to create an economic problem in

304
00:22:55.640 --> 00:23:02.119
situation where there aren't these middle class
jobs to have. So we really need

305
00:23:02.119 --> 00:23:06.880
to have the leaders of this country
and people pay attention to this and figure

306
00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:11.359
out how are we ensuring that we
have an economy that's going to keep running

307
00:23:11.359 --> 00:23:17.440
and that's a strong middle class.
I mean, that's the backbone of the

308
00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:22.079
US. And when you've got strong
union representation. It helps keep a strong

309
00:23:22.119 --> 00:23:26.799
middle class in America. And talk
a little bit about the extent of this

310
00:23:26.880 --> 00:23:30.160
outside of la and outside of Hollywood. I mentioned some of the numbers at

311
00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:33.920
one point seven million people, fifty
eight billion dollar industry. How is that?

312
00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:37.640
You know? I know when I
was living in North Carolina, they

313
00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:41.880
had offered a lot of subsidies to
film companies to film there, and so

314
00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:42.920
they were making a lot of films
there and there were a lot of people

315
00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:47.000
who are working in the industry.
How is that looking now? How is

316
00:23:47.039 --> 00:23:51.119
that distributed? And there's still a
lot of films being made in a lot

317
00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:55.519
of different places. Georgia has a
great deal, New York, Illinois,

318
00:23:55.599 --> 00:24:00.000
Washington States. There's a lot of
the industry that's around the United States,

319
00:24:00.039 --> 00:24:03.799
and some because states very specifically,
like you said, in North Carolina pass

320
00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:08.519
maybe different tax credits or other incentives
to have the filming come there and other

321
00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:15.480
places because they're just so geographically perfect
for so much of what they're making that

322
00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:18.680
it's it's a place that makes sense. We do see a lot go to

323
00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:22.519
Canada as well. I think there's
a lot of desire for the US to

324
00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:27.559
keep that in country, but we
do see a lot of filming that that

325
00:24:27.640 --> 00:24:33.079
happens up there for the same sorts
of reasons, So you know, it's

326
00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:38.359
something that's going to affect states outside
Like you said of California, it's it's

327
00:24:38.359 --> 00:24:45.799
a real problem for some states now
because of how much they've grown the industry

328
00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:49.480
there are taking a big hit on
the economy. Yeah, yeah, gonna

329
00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:56.839
affect a lot of people. The
Illinois Nurses Association is involved in some labor

330
00:24:56.839 --> 00:25:00.240
strikes also. What's going on there. It sounds like there is some dispute

331
00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:04.799
about the working environment and the safety
and I think we have to remember that

332
00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:14.160
a lot of times what the demands
are for hours and those sorts of situations

333
00:25:14.200 --> 00:25:18.400
arise that these workers need to be
sure to have a working environment that is

334
00:25:18.440 --> 00:25:22.799
safe for them. And particularly if
you're thinking about your nurses, you don't

335
00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:29.799
want them to be walking around overtired
or in a possible safety issue, because

336
00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:32.799
that's not good for any of the
patients either. I believe they went on

337
00:25:32.839 --> 00:25:36.599
a two day strike, so it's
sort of a warning strike, and this

338
00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:40.720
is you know, showing what the
problem could be and what they'd have to

339
00:25:40.759 --> 00:25:44.400
deal with if they were on a
full strike and that's often what we see

340
00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:48.720
with hospital workers and whatnot. But
yeah, this is not Again, it's

341
00:25:48.759 --> 00:25:53.440
not just about the pay. It's
more about their working environment. Well,

342
00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:56.880
I ask you, is it Does
it have anything to do with some of

343
00:25:56.920 --> 00:26:00.680
the mandates that happened in terms of
vaccines and stuff like that, because I

344
00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:04.480
know that was a real sticking point. A lot of people left their employer,

345
00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:07.759
left some of the hospitals that were
doing that type of thing, and

346
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:11.400
went somewhere else. Is that a
factor in this Those kind of mandates haven't

347
00:26:11.920 --> 00:26:19.599
come up in this particular strikes as
a factor. But you know, the

348
00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:25.599
medical workers, much like our army
and our navy and whatnot, have had

349
00:26:25.680 --> 00:26:30.359
a lot of vaccine requirements for their
entire job. I mean that sort of

350
00:26:30.559 --> 00:26:36.680
comes with entering that industry. That
was not simply a COVID mandate. There's

351
00:26:36.759 --> 00:26:40.039
a whole host of vaccines that they
have to have to be able to work

352
00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:44.480
in that particular environment. So that's
nothing new for for a healthcare worker.

353
00:26:44.640 --> 00:26:47.519
Yeah, I was just wondering if
maybe it was a new concern for them

354
00:26:47.599 --> 00:26:52.119
and it's going to start taking place
there. But that was that was throughout

355
00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:56.359
Illinois. Are there are other things
like that happening in other states that you

356
00:26:56.480 --> 00:27:02.799
know of in terms of the health
industry. I haven't heard of a new

357
00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:06.119
one in the health industry right now, although you know, stuff pops up.

358
00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:08.720
I know the nurses in Buffalo how
to strike a couple of years ago

359
00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:15.680
and successfully met that. But we
are seeing possibly UAW and workers in Michigan

360
00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:19.720
putting together the union made cars.
They might be on strike soon. There's

361
00:27:19.759 --> 00:27:25.359
discussions about that. We obviously have
the hotel workers and strike in in Los

362
00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:27.359
Angeles, and we're seeing a lot
of organizing, you know, I mean,

363
00:27:27.400 --> 00:27:30.039
that's the other element of this.
It's not just those who have it

364
00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:34.000
and are striking, but we're seeing
a lot of new organizing happening and people

365
00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:38.640
working to see if they can form
a union and join a union. And

366
00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:42.200
you know, just for viewers to
know, like that's a process, it's

367
00:27:42.319 --> 00:27:48.160
there's there's cards that have to be
signed, there's lots of paperwork that's submitted,

368
00:27:48.200 --> 00:27:52.240
there's votes that happen amongst the workers. So it really has to be

369
00:27:52.440 --> 00:27:57.680
that a large majority of the workers
want to join a union, and it

370
00:27:57.720 --> 00:28:02.880
means that they've met with a particular
union, they've talked through that they understand

371
00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:06.079
what sort of the demands that they
may want to make on the employer.

372
00:28:07.119 --> 00:28:11.559
And it might be that they have
already have other places that belong in that

373
00:28:11.640 --> 00:28:14.640
industry, belong to a certain union, it may be a fresh new one.

374
00:28:15.519 --> 00:28:18.680
So we are seeing a lot of
organizing happening across the country right now

375
00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:21.000
too. Yeah, and I think
they're going to see the kind of disruption

376
00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:25.440
there. Maybe not as many different
factors as you see in the entertainment industry

377
00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:30.319
in terms of all the distribution and
the manufacturing, and you know the involvement

378
00:28:30.359 --> 00:28:34.799
of technology, but certainly technology and
this push for electric cars is going to

379
00:28:34.839 --> 00:28:37.880
be very disruptive. They're going to
be simpler, they're not going to require

380
00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:42.119
as many people, and they're moving
the power plants out of the heavily unionized

381
00:28:42.279 --> 00:28:47.880
states into the non unionized states as
well at the same time, and I

382
00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:51.920
think they're looking at lower volume.
I think most of these automotive companies are

383
00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:56.279
now looking to be mobility companies,
renting cars by the ride, you know,

384
00:28:56.440 --> 00:29:00.480
getting back to the crews and the
driverless cars and stuff like that.

385
00:29:00.519 --> 00:29:03.519
I think that's really their focus.
Whether they can make it work and what

386
00:29:03.640 --> 00:29:04.960
kind of a timeframe they can make
it work. That's going to be another

387
00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:11.359
issue, but I think that they'll
waive the regulations and get this push for

388
00:29:11.400 --> 00:29:15.200
them one way or the other.
Well, it certainly is an amazing topic

389
00:29:15.440 --> 00:29:19.519
and it has so many different aspects
to it. Just in Hollywood, it

390
00:29:19.559 --> 00:29:23.599
does. But we're going to be
seeing this type of disruption, some massive

391
00:29:23.960 --> 00:29:30.480
time of economic disruption, and it's
going to be very challenging for everybody as

392
00:29:30.559 --> 00:29:33.839
this rolls out. Thank you so
much for talking to us. Again,

393
00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:40.640
we're talking to Nicole Brenner Schmitz about
the labor strikes that I think are going

394
00:29:40.680 --> 00:29:44.160
to continue to proliferate in this kind
of an economic environment. Thank you so

395
00:29:44.200 --> 00:29:47.079
much for talking to us. Thank
you for having me. Thank you.

396
00:29:47.160 --> 00:29:48.480
All Right, folks, we're going
to take a quick break and we will

397
00:29:48.519 --> 00:31:11.640
be right back analyzing the globalist next
move. And now the Deevid nutshell