How Major Labor Unions are Positioning on AI
As industries rush to integrate artificial intelligence tools into their daily operations, labor unions may well serve as workers’ best hope of shaping how this trend affects their jobs. Whether by securing contract provisions, lobbying for protections or resisting major changes, unions are set to play a critical role in the pace and reach of AI adoption across workplaces.
So far, unions in the United States have adopted a fairly consistent tone on AI: that the technology has the potential to improve productivity and benefit society, but workers need to be involved in where and how it is deployed.
The AFL-CIO, a federation of 63 unions representing roughly 15 million workers, typified that posture in a report published earlier this month.
“There is a path where new technology makes work better and safer, with good union jobs that have fair pay and better job quality,” the group wrote. “In this vision, working people have economic security, knowing that companies and public agencies must follow rules to make sure technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) is used safely, responsibly, and fairly.”
While critics have urged workers to approach AI more skeptically, warning that it is the latest in a long line of technologies dating back to the mechanized loom that employers will use to justify cutting labor costs, the AFL-CIO report paints a rosier picture of AI’s potential.
“With workers having a real voice in technology, AI strengthens, rather than weakens, democratic institutions, creating an economy that benefits everyone and ensuring public services are not undermined by improper uses of AI,” the federation wrote.
A key demand across unions is for guardrails on the development and deployment of AI.
Several unions lobbied against a federal proposal that would have barred states from enforcing AI regulations. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing 1.3 million workers across the US and Canada, called it a “power grab by Big Tech — and a direct threat to workers,” while the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) said it “would have given big tech companies even more leeway to operate unchecked and with limited accountability.”
Another is that workers have a say in deployment.
