Labor, Big Tech, and A.I.: The Big Picture (CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies)

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

1:00pm - 2:30pm

Lunch will be served. Free and open to all.25 West 43rd Street, 18th floor, New York, NY 10036 (map)

*In-person* only in Midtown Manhattan.

REGISTER:

https://slucuny.swoogo.com/30October2024/register

Join us for a conversation with Alex N. Press, staff writer at Jacobin magazine and Edward Ongweso Jr., senior researcher at Security in Context and a co-host of the podcast This Machine Kills; moderated by New Labor Forum Editor-at-Large Micah Uetricht.

The discussion will address major issues confronting the labor movement with the development and use of artificial intelligence, surveillance, automation of work generally, and the rise of Big Tech’s control over large segments of the U.S. workforce. This conversation is the first in what will be an ongoing series focusing on the impact of Big Tech and AI on the labor movement and strategies for organizing to build worker power.

Presented in collaboration with New Labor Forum (NLF), this program connects to the fall 2024 issue of NLF, which features the special section, “Labor and the Uncertain Future of Artificial Intelligence,” and includes the article, “How the U.S. Labor Movement Is Confronting A.I.,” by Alex N. Press.

Speaker Bios:

Edward Ongweso Jr. is a senior researcher at Security in Context and a co-host of This Machine Kills, a podcast about the political economy of technology. His work has appeared in The Guardian, Baffler, Logic(s), Nation, Dissent, Vice, and elsewhere.

Alex N. Press is a staff writer at Jacobin magazine. Her writing has appeared in New Labor Forum, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Nation, among other places, and she is currently writing her first book, What We Will: How American Labor Woke Up.

Micah Uetricht is Editor-at-Large of New Labor Forum, a national labor journal produced by the Murphy Institute at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies and host of SLU’s podcast Reinventing Solidarity. Uetricht is also the editor of Jacobin and the author of two books: Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity; and Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism (co-authored by Meagan Day).

REGISTER:

https://slucuny.swoogo.com/30October2024/register

SUNY and CUNY Faculty Support HELU Statement of "Unity for the Future of Higher Education"

Three Executive Committees for the faculty governance bodies of the State University of New York (SUNY) and the City University of New York (CUNY) today pledged their strong support for the “Statement of Unity for the Future of Higher Ed,” which was issued by Higher Education Labor United (HELU) and eleven national unions, from AFSCME to NEA to SEIU to UAW, that represent campus workers. These three Executive Committees, which lead and represent

● the SUNY University Faculty Senate (SUNY UFS), the system-wide shared governance organization for SUNY’s state-operated and statutory campuses (Keith Landa, President);

● the SUNY Faculty Council of Community Colleges (SUNY FCCC), the system-wide shared governance organization for SUNY’s community colleges (Candice Vacin, President); and

● the CUNY University Faculty Senate (CUNY UFS), the system-wide governance organization for CUNY’s 11 senior colleges, seven community colleges, and seven graduate, honors, and professional schools (John Verzani, President); released the following joint statement:

We endorse the HELU “Statement of Unity for the Future of Higher Ed” and urge SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr., CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, SUNY Board of Trustees Chair Merryl Tisch, CUNY Board of Trustees Chair William C. Thompson, Jr., and Governor Kathy Hochul to join the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of University Professors, nine other national unions, United University Professions, SUNY UFS, SUNY FCCC, and CUNY UFS in calling on the Harris/Walz campaign (and, indeed, all presidential candidates and campaigns) to commit to investing in public higher education like the public good it is.

We urge Chancellors King and Matos Rodríguez, Chairs Tisch and Thompson, and Governor Hochul to call on the New York State Congressional delegation to set an example by uniting to maximize federal investments in SUNY and CUNY; expand student access to, and the affordability of, public higher education; and enhance working conditions and worker protections on every campus.

We urge Chancellors King and Matos Rodríguez, Chairs Tisch and Thompson, and Governor Hochul to make New York State the national leader in college affordability and in advancing the mission of public higher education. We encourage Governor Hochul to take the national stage with the boldest Executive Budget proposal for SUNY’s 64 campuses and CUNY’s 25 campuses in New York State history in State Fiscal Year 2026 (SFY26).

SUNY UFS, SUNY FCCC, and CUNY UFS will be proposing SFY26 Executive Budget Resolutions for approval at our Fall 2024 Plenaries. The proposed resolutions will lay out our case that increased state support for each SUNY and CUNY institution is needed to promote student access and success, to make SUNY and CUNY the world-class public higher education systems that they can be, and to super-charge regional economic and workforce development. We pledge to continue building broad public support for SUNY and CUNY on the ground that these public higher education systems advance the public good by transforming our students’ and patients’ lives and future prospects.

To that end, SUNY UFS, SUNY FCC, SUNY, and CUNY are organizing the national conference Public Good U: Strengthening the Case for Public Higher Education in Albany, February 7-9, 2025, and encourage all stakeholders to attend.