The W.G.A. Deal Offers a Blueprint on How to Save Your Job From A.I. | Activist Media Company Targets Gen-Z on Instagram | Euro Zone's 2-Year Low Inflation | Maximizing West Africa's Chocolate Market Profit

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� � � � � � You Might Like � � � � � � � � � Opinion | The W.G.A. Deal Offers a Blueprint on How to Save Your Job From A.I. - The New York Times -     The tentative deal announced this week by the Writers Guild of America includes many industry-specific aspects, such as the size of writers’ rooms and improved residuals for streaming. But everyone from autoworkers to white-collar middle managers should be paying very close attention to how this deal was achieved — because it sets a monumental precedent for labor relations in a digital future. Unlike bread-and-butter issues like wages, benefits and the terms and conditions of employment — topics over which management, according to labor law, must negotiate “in good faith” — technology, like business strategy, constitutes managerial prerogative. This means that the use of technology, such as artificial intelligence, exists in a bargaining gray area. If workers bring it up, employers can either open a negotiation or reply with a simple “No, thanks.” But the W.G.A. deal put A.I. squarely on the table. In the past, management would often make nearly all technology-related decisions before negotiations even began. Workers and their unions were excluded from early conversations about technology — including ones that could open up a range of issues around use and deployment that would benefit both workers and employers. The only mandated negotiations were around the technologies’ impact on terms and conditions such as wages. This dynamic may help explain why, at the beginning of the W.G.A. negotiations, many believed, or at least publicly stated, that securing any constraints at all on the use of A.I. was a pipe dream. Continued here How This Activist Media Company Is Focusing It's Content Curation on Instagram For a Gen-Z Audience - Inc.com    In a media landscape still figuring out how to appeal to Gen-Z, Tim Chau, 23, seems to have cracked the code with their company, Impact, an Instagram-first platform for social justice content. On the strength of posts like "fast fashion brands are putting out more clothes than ever; here's why that's bad for the environment" and "how to register to vote in just five easy steps," Impact has attracted more than 2.2 million followers in the two years since Chau and their cousin, Michelle Chau Andrews, launched it from the backyard of their apartment while studying at University of California, Berkeley. The two founders did so in the wake of George Floyd's murder, and have since leveraged the brand's reach not only to educate their followers, but also to fundraise more than $1.4 million for causes important to them--putting the impact in Impact. "I noticed there was this desire among young people to not only learn about issues that matter," says Chau, "but to take action and share resources with their friends." The founders also began viewing Impact as a business, partnering with ethical brands such as Ecosia, a search engine that uses ad revenue to plant trees. As Impact's influence has grown, Chau's been thinking about ways to help people beyond the company's core mission of informing readers. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Chau paired Impact's coverage with Insta­gram's in-app fundraising feature to encourage readers to donate to humanitarian aid organizations as they were absorbing the news. That's key, given that 74 percent of Gen-Zers say they consume news mainly via social media platforms, according to a report by the Associated Press and American Press Institute. By providing everything followers need to take action without leaving the app, Chau sees Impact's mission as getting digital natives off the sidelines and into the fight. Continued here Don't like ads? Go ad-free with TradeBriefs Premium Euro zone inflation falls to lowest in 2 years as economy slows - Reuters    A customer shops at a Carrefour supermarket in Montesson near Paris, France, September 13, 2023. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights FRANKFURT, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Inflation in the euro zone fell to its lowest level in two years in September, suggesting the European Central Bank's steady diet of interest rate hikes was succeeding in curbing runaway prices albeit at a growing cost for economic growth. Consumer prices in the 20 countries that share the euro rose by 4.3% in September, the slowest pace since October 2021, from 5.2% one month earlier, according to Eurostat's flash reading published on Friday. Continued here How West Africa Can Reap More Profit From the Global Chocolate Market - The New York Times -     Resource-rich countries like Ghana are often cut out of lucrative parts of the business like manufacturing. The “fairchain movement” wants to change that. The first leg of the 35-mile journey from Ghana’s capital city, Accra, to the Fairafric chocolate factory in Amanase on the N6 highway is a quick ride. But after about 30 minutes, the smoothly paved road devolves into a dirt expanse without lanes. Lumbering trucks, packed commuter minivans, cars and motorcycles crawl along craggy, rutted stretches bordered by concrete dividers, muddy patches and heaps of rock. The stopgap roadway infrastructure is one of the challenges Fairafric has had to navigate to build a factory in this West African country. The area had no fiber-optic connection to Ghana’s telecommunications network. No local banks were interested in lending the company money. And it required the personal intervention of Ghana’s president before construction could even begin in 2020. Continued here

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