As a long-time SAG-AFTRA member, I wrote, arranged, produced and performed, "I AIN'T NO AI" to depict the struggle of SAG actors in this current historic strike, as it relates to the usage of actors and artificial intelligence (AI).

I AIN'T NO AI

All workers deserve to be treated better and given better working conditions, more staffing, less mandated overtime, guaranteed 40 hour work weeks, paid leave, good benefits, and so much more.  We're more than numbers on a spreadsheet.  We're human beings and we are intrinsically worth more than what we are being given.

This song is available for free download if you want a copy.


Lyrics:

This one's for the new boss
Same as the old boss
From the APWU Bangor Area Local 536...
Let's go!

When you hit me up for overtime I thought it through.
We're wasting up our lives, working hard for you.
We've been takin' stock and it's overdue.
A better contract is what we want from you.
When you hit me up for overtime I thought it through.
We're wasting up our lives, working hard for you.
We've been takin' stock: wages overdue.
A better contract is what we want from you.

When you negotiate, remember we're worth more,
Wages, staffing, benefits, conditions, the first four,
Inflation on the rise, it's taxing the work floor,
Some of us get overtime, some are still dirt poor,
We Serve for the People, we ask you what that's worth,
Stacks of packages, letters and flats surge,
Union Gear Thursday, that's with the Black Shirts,
Remember that us workers are United in Craft Work,
Listen, Lou. We're feeling less than half heard,
This time, the Servants will be gettin' the last word.
A decade of concessions, reality sets in,
Inflation outpacin' our wages now and we get thin,
Full time Clerks, working extra to get by,
Used to be the job, that the metric was set by,
Newer hires make the same, workin' at Best Buy,
And that's a fact that we cannot continue to let fly.

When you hit me up for overtime I thought it through.
We're wasting up our lives, working hard for you.
We've been takin' stock and it's overdue.
A better contract is what we want from you.
When you hit me up for overtime I thought it through.
We're wasting up our lives, working hard for you.
We've been takin' stock: staffing overdue.
A better contract is what we want from...

You claim we're fully staffed, then give overtime mandates.
You're doing our work, then claimin' we can't take
Another new hire, we're at max capacity,
Delaying the service is not a thing we had to see,
Twenty-eleven, brought the two tier pay scale,
Thirteen years chasin' loose leaf bait trails,
Turnover risin', the new peeps' wage jail,
Enough with the lies, the youth need a raise, they'll 
Walk out if you don't give 'em a reason to stay,
Benefits fall short, with three kids on the way,
You forget we're the future? Yeah, we need to be trained.
Failing to hire more of us now would be a mistake.
Workers gettin' hurt, haven't seen a team lift,
In over two years, you don't seem to give a shit,
Reverting our jobs, every time we miss a bid,
Truth be told, every one of us sick of it,
We won't be silent 'til it's all career
We want a contract by the end of the year
Convert the part timers who are already here
And improve the conditions that are bringing us tears
It comes down to this, you gotta stick to your word,
Violate the contract like you flippin' the bird,
We hold up our end, give us what we deserve,
And stop claiming that our work is your victory, heard?
Yeah...

When you hit me up for overtime I thought it through.
We're wasting up our lives, working hard for you.
We've been takin' stock and it's overdue.
A better contract is what we want from you.
When you hit me up for overtime I thought it through.
We're wasting up our lives, working hard for you.
We've been takin' stock: staffing overdue.
A better contract is what we want from you.
When you hit me up for overtime I thought it through.
We're wasting up our lives, working hard for you.
We've been takin' stock, wages overdue.
A better contract is what we want from you.
When you hit me up for overtime I thought it through.
We're wasting up our lives, working hard for you.
We've been takin' stock: and it's overdue.
A better contract is what we want from you.

Yeah...

We're Worth More

Based on the Daimler Truck workers chanting "tick tock" as their contract deadline approached, and the Boeing strike of 33,000 machinists who voted down the first contract offer by 95%. labornotes Heavy, mechanical beat mimics factory sounds. Verses tell stories of workers forced to work weekends despite record profits, automation threatening jobs, executives making 300 times what workers earn. Chorus is the relentless "tick tock" chant building in intensity. References the ILA dockworkers' first strike since 1977, the 53-day Boeing action, AT&T's 36-day strike. Bridge features actual union slogans: "On strike, shut 'em down, this is a union town!" Celebrates the 271,500 workers who struck in 2024 Economic Policy Institute and the 77% of young workers who approve of unions.

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

A celebration of young workers leading the labor resurgence. Opens with the statistics: 77% of workers under 34 approve of unions, 88% of workers under 30, support crossing partisan lines. Center for American ProgressTraprock Verses tell the stories: The predominantly young Starbucks Workers United organizing 537 stores; Restaurant Dive grad students organizing 20,000+ since 2022; young workers at Amazon, in tech, in schools bringing "imagination, creativity and fresh strategies" to the movement.
Chorus is defiant: "We're not asking, we're organizing / No one's coming to save us anyway / The adults haven't won, only we can / Gen Z ain't asking, we're here to stay." References actual youth organizing language and approach. Bridge addresses why: Starting from behind, crushing student debt, housing unaffordable, climate crisis, no job security, nothing left to lose. But turns that precarity into power: "You gave us nothing, so we've got nothing to lose / You broke the system, now we're breaking through." Ends with union chants: "I believe that we will win!"

Gen Z Ain't Asking

A strong supporter of Labor in all its forms, speaking truth to power.

Music Studio, covering any genre, any kind of artist.

Temperance Lancecouncil is a singer-songwriter in Los Angeles, California, who originally hails from the Carolina, Virginia line. At first glance, you’d think of this sultry lady as a sexy R&B singer, or as a swaggering, female rapper. Instead, she’s a Country-Soul songstress who grew up watching “Hee Haw” on television and listening to Dolly Parton, John Denver, Glen Campbell and others. Her back story is not one without adversity – she overcame two bouts of life-threatening, double pneumonia as an infant, and scarlet fever as a child. She was told that she started singing and dancing at age 3, when her mother began teaching her how to harmonize. She readily admits to picking poke salad as a child and eating red dirt.

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