Strengthen Collective Bargaining

Workers Need a Seat at the Table

As artificial intelligence transforms workplaces across America, workers face a stark choice: negotiate collectively or face automation alone and powerless. Companies choose when and how to deploy AI, and without union representation, individual workers have no say in whether their job gets automated away.

The Writers Guild Victory Shows the Way

The 2023 Writers Guild strike demonstrated conclusively that workers can successfully negotiate AI protocols when they possess collective power.¹ Writers secured contractual protections ensuring:

• AI cannot replace them in the writing process
• AI-generated material does not qualify as “source material” affecting their credits or residuals
• Studios must disclose when AI-generated material is provided to writers¹

This victory proves that workers with collective bargaining power can shape how technology transforms their industries rather than simply being displaced by it.

The Crisis of Union Decline

Yet only 6% of private-sector workers currently belong to unions, and AI-exposed sectors show disproportionately low unionization rates.¹ This leaves the vast majority of American workers vulnerable to automation decisions made entirely by management without worker input.

Research shows that automation doesn’t just boost productivity—it eliminates jobs. When companies replace workers with machines, productivity may increase, but workers lose wages and employment. MIT economists found that industrial robots reduced both jobs and pay in the industries and cities where they were deployed.² Without unions, workers have no power to negotiate protections against these harms.

Pass the PRO Act

We must strengthen labor protections and remove barriers to union organizing. The PRO Act (Protecting the Right to Organize Act), which passed the House of Representatives in 2021 but stalled in the Senate, would:

• Ban right-to-work laws that weaken unions
• Protect workers from employer retaliation during organizing drives
• Impose meaningful penalties on employers who violate labor law³

Passing such legislation becomes increasingly urgent as AI threatens to concentrate economic power further in corporate hands while weakening worker bargaining position.

Learn from International Models

German works councils provide a model worth importing. German law mandates worker consultation before major technological changes affecting employment.¹ American firms should face similar requirements to:

• Consult with workers or their representatives before implementing AI systems that will alter job responsibilities or eliminate positions
• Provide advance notice enabling affected employees to prepare
• Negotiate transition support for workers whose jobs are automated

Such consultation requirements would not ban automation but would ensure worker voices shape how automation proceeds.

The Bottom Line

Corporations have lobbyists. Workers need unions. In an era of rapid technological change, collective bargaining represents workers’ best tool for ensuring they share in the gains from automation rather than bearing all its costs. We must pass the PRO Act, strengthen labor protections, and ensure every worker has the right to organize and bargain collectively.

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