SAG-AFTRA Attends Inaugural Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Workers’ Rights

SAG-AFTRA National Innovation and New Technology Committee Vice Chair and A.I. Task Force Committee Chair Woody Schultz and National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland were in attendance at the Making Tech Work for Workers Conference in Sacramento, California, on Jan. 14, 2025.

The inaugural conference opened discussions about artificial intelligence and strategies for upcoming negotiations and possible strikes. More than 200 trade union members and tech industry workers attended.

Schultz participated in the How is Tech Showing Up in Our Workplaces and Impacting Us? breakout session. In addition to giving a brief presentation on the impact of A.I. technologies on entertainment and media workers, he spoke at length about SAG-AFTRA’s efforts to introduce safeguards for A.I. within its collective bargaining agreements and through state and federal legislation.

Crabtree-Ireland spoke at the closing plenary, The Path Ahead — a Discussion of Challenges and Opportunities. The session, which also featured AFL-CIO Tech Institute Executive Director Amanda Ballantyne and A.I. Now Institute Co-Executive Director Amba Kak, was a dialogue between the trio about the challenges of winning rights and protections around workplace technologies.

Throughout the session, Crabtree-Ireland outlined SAG-AFTRA’s continued approach to addressing the effects of A.I. and spoke about the importance of unity among California workers and labor leaders in shaping policies.

“We’re up against the biggest corporate interests and the biggest political interests that you can imagine, and working together in unity is absolutely where our power comes from,” said Crabtree-Ireland. “We’re going to have so many challenges on the federal level, [but] in California, we can use public policy to advance collective bargaining and use collective bargaining to advance public policy.”

All photos by Brooke Anderson/Movement Photographer.

Photo: SAG-AFTRA National Innovation and New Technology Committee Vice Chair and A.I. Task Force Committee Chair Woody Schultz, right, during the “How is Tech Showing Up in Our Workplaces and Impacting Us?” breakout session.