Approximately one in three American workers had a union card in 1954. The trend line read like an obituary for years, and by 2024, that percentage had dropped to about one in ten. Then a strange thing occurred. The automated, relentless, and apathetic technology that was meant to eradicate the working class gave organized labor its most powerful battle in a generation. It’s difficult to ignore the irony.
Hollywood was the best place to see it. The Writers Guild did not conclude that machines were suddenly creating award-winning television when OpenAI demonstrated to the world in late 2022 that a chatbot could write coherent prose at length. They came to the sharper conclusion that studios might use AI to perform just enough tasks and then pay employees less for the remaining work. The subsequent strike in 2023 transformed a rather ethereal fear into a demand for a contract. SAG-AFTRA also won protections after going on strike. The other entertainment unions followed suit the next year. Other employees were observing something that had changed.
A more subdued version of the same tale could be found on the casino floor in Las Vegas. UNITE HERE Local 226, which represents culinary workers, negotiated a contract with major resorts in late 2023 that included $2,000 in severance pay for each year of employment in the event that a job was lost due to “technology or AI.” Putting a price on what the boss wants to take is what unions have always done, and there’s something almost archaic about that. The object only had a new name.
Speaking with those who keep a close eye on this, I’m struck by how steady the labor message has remained. not a rejection. Not the loom-smashing reaction that detractors consistently forecast. The AFL-CIO, which has 63 unions and about 15 million members, consistently outlines a path where technology improves work as long as employees have a genuine say in where and how it is implemented. In order to reach an early agreement with the game studio ZeniMax, the Communications Workers of America established an internal research operation, published AI principles, and employed a “proactive bargaining” strategy to restrict AI to applications that enhance rather than replace human labor. The aspect that feels truly novel is getting ahead of the employer instead of responding to the layoffs.
The demands themselves have taken on an unusual level of specificity. Red lines that unions can bring to the table are outlined in a toolkit from Cornell’s labor school, which is derived from the port industry. These include prohibitions on biometric surveillance, emotion recognition software, and fully automated hiring decisions. Data is its most controversial concept. Every crane override, workflow modification, and worker fix contributes to the model that could eventually take their place. According to the report, they weren’t hired to train AI, but rather to move boxes. It’s still unclear if unions can truly obtain a portion of that value through transition funds or wage premiums. No one has found a complete solution to this truly challenging problem.
Although “further” is relative, Europe is theoretically further along. Only about 20% of trade unions had a collective agreement that specifically addressed AI, despite the fact that many more were discussing it, according to a Eurofound survey. The 3F in Denmark came to an agreement with a cleaning platform that reclassified contractors as employees. This was a minor action with significant ramifications because algorithmic task-assignment is only grievable for unions based on employee status.
A revival is not assured by any of this. The NLRB has experienced a period of near paralysis, membership numbers haven’t increased, and it’s reasonable to argue that AI is just the newest cost-cutting tool disguised as something more sophisticated. However, observing the negotiating tables gives the impression that labor has found a battle that employees in a wide range of industries can relate to on an instinctual level. There is little in common between a nurse, a screenwriter, a warehouse picker, and a hotel housekeeper. They both wonder who controls the software’s usage. As of right now, the unions are the ones making the direct request.
