MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Labor unions have tried to protect workers from many things - hazardous working conditions, excessively long workdays, trade agreements that kill U.S. jobs. Now they're confronting a force that all of us are reckoning with - the explosive growth of AI. NPR's Andrea Hsu is here this Labor Day to talk about how that's going. Good morning, Andrea.
ANDREA HSU, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So we know that AI is already transforming work for all kinds of people. How are labor unions responding?
HSU: Well, this is something that's been front of mind for them for a while. Already, a couple of years ago, the nurses union, National Nurses United, they were holding rallies and speaking out against AI-powered software that some hospitals had introduced. You know, they had algorithms calculating how many hours of nursing care a patient needed which affected staffing and they were automating patient handoffs between shifts. And the nurses argued that this technology failed to see things that experienced nurses see and that it was undermining their work, putting patients in danger. Now the nurses union has gotten some hospitals to negotiate over the use of these AI systems, but it's an ongoing issue, and they haven't been able to stop hospitals from using these systems altogether.
MARTIN: So it's more like they're negotiating to try to put guardrails on AI but not blocking it.
HSU: Exactly. And Liz Shuler, the president of the AFL-CIO, made clear they're not trying to block AI. She talked about this at the National Press Club earlier this year. She says there are members, you know, who represent office workers and factory workers and retail workers, all kinds of professions. She says they're not anti-technology or anti-innovation.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LIZ SHULER: There are so many workers in our movement who are excited to use AI, who are already finding ways to help them do their jobs better. What we are is anti-greed. We are against these forces that are using technology without our input, without our control.
HSU: And she talked about a survey they did. They asked 1,200 workers how they feel about AI, and, Michel, 95% of them said they wanted people, not AI, to make decisions about hiring, firing and pay, and 94% of them wanted to know if AI was being used to monitor them. And, you know, the AFL-CIO has been pushing for laws that would create these kinds of guardrails, and there are now some state and local regulations that require companies to reveal if they're using AI to make hiring or layoff decisions, for example. But AI regulation remains patchy.
MARTIN: So the unions are saying they're not anti-technology, but are any of them enthusiastic about what's going on?
HSU: Actually, yes. The building trades unions are loving the data center boom. You know, AI companies are building these things everywhere, and it's creating tons of work for electricians, plumbers, pipe fitters. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers called on their 900,000 members around the country to ask their elected officials to oppose any moratorium on data centers. I talked with Don Slaiman about this. He's a political coordinator with the union, and he's frustrated by the recent backlash. He says, you know, we're a nation of data hoarders.
DON SLAIMAN: How many good pictures, how many emails do you not erase and empty from your trash can? I mean, all these folks there are saying, oh, data centers are their scourge without understanding what they mean. And most of all, don't understand what they mean for skilled tradespeople.
HSU: And he disputes what many people say, that this work is just temporary. He says his union has contracts extending years into the future, and that the equipment inside those data centers is something his members will be upgrading for years to come.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Andrea Hsu.
Andrea, thank you.
HSU: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
