AI Policy and Implementation Must Be Worker First

Autonomous vehicles and other new tech targeting good-paying careers in America is a deadly assault on all of us.

By Peter Finn

Teamsters aren’t afraid of a fight. With the AI revolution upon us, now is the time for workers to make our voices heard against Big Tech and greedy corporations that want to replace us with robots.

In the Teamsters Union, we do not oppose new technology that enhances work, makes work safer, or creates new jobs in the supply chain. But we are prepared to fight with full force against corruptible employers that want to use new technology, like autonomous vehicles, to eliminate labor and increase their profits at the expense of our livelihoods.

The fight facing us is a big one. Corporations are pouring billions into a plan to outsource good middle-class jobs to machines run by AI. Their goal is simple but disturbing. Big Tech wants to dispatch AI machines to destroy jobs at the behest of big businesses — in this country and across the globe.

When we hear “outsourcing,” we tend to think of jobs being sent overseas, or domestic outsourcing where work is shifted to other parts of the country or to independent contractors that undercut wages and benefits. But the reality is most dangerous outsourcing is happening every day under the guise of “technological innovation” where working people are replaced by AI and automation. Those who say everyone will benefit from technological advancements have it wrong. Time and again, we have witnessed the benefits of new technology going solely to those who make the decisions about how such changes are implemented.

Working people cannot afford to leave the decision over how AI is implemented to the CEOs of big corporations dead set on ripping us off. Without a doubt, they will choose profit over people every time.

In their book, Power and Progress, 2024 Nobel Prize-winning MIT economists Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson show through historical economic analysis that new technology doesn’t automatically result in inevitable shared economic progress with a positive outcome for the majority of people. Rather workers share in the gains in productivity of new technology only when society makes specific choices around the direction of how advancements are implemented. These choices and the direction taken have led to very different outcomes for workers.

Acemoglu and Johnson argue that historically the implementation of new technology has been positive for workers when it has been developed in a manner that complements work and creates useful tasks and new jobs throughout the supply chain. The result is shared prosperity in the economy where workers enjoy the benefit of increased productivity with real wage growth.

There has been a negative impact on shared prosperity when the choice of how to implement new technologies is left only to big businesses whose profit-driven focus is eliminating jobs. This always results in a decline in real wages, concentration of wealth, and increased income inequality.

Unfortunately, throughout the digital transformation of the last 40 years, the implementation of new technologies was indeed left in the hands of major corporations without proper checks and balances. What followed was a profit-motivated focus on automation and the elimination of jobs, reversing the shared prosperity felt by working people in the post-World War II era. The United States, among other nations, since 1980 has been characterized by real wage declines for workers without college degrees. Workers have suffered huge increases in income inequality where extreme wealth has been concentrated in the hands of the billionaire class.

The benefits of technological advancements don’t automatically trickle down. But the direction new technology takes is within our control. Shared prosperity for workers comes when unions, community leaders, the legislature, and everyday Americans move the tide in that direction by demanding a broader complementary application of technology, as opposed to automation that simply guts our work.

With the AI revolution at our doorstep, the choices we make now will shape the future direction of our economy and the role of work itself. With commonsense tech policy, we have the chance to make sure everyone throughout the economy prospers.

Now is the time to fight back. Working people need to harness our power and choose for ourselves how AI is deployed in our communities. We need to make our voices heard and demand elected officials craft and enact legislation that ensures responsible guardrails are placed on AI. Middle-class working people need to see the benefits of this emerging technology while also limiting potentially disastrous consequences of its implementation.

Technology that enhances and supplements our work can be positive. But technology like autonomous vehicles that completely decimate good-paying careers is a direct attack on all of us. We need AI policy that puts the interests of workers first, not the profits of Big Tech and greedy corporations. This is precisely why the Teamsters are leading the charge to protect middle-class jobs and the economic security of our communities. Our kids’ future depends on winning this fight.

Peter Finn is the Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 856 in California’s Bay Area. He also serves as Teamsters International Vice President At-Large and Director of the Teamsters Public Services and Health Care Division.