"Recent developments suggest that the labor movement is starting to take a more active and adversarial approach toward AI in the workplace, This was hardly an isolated incident amid the breakneck integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the workplace. Ominous signs abound, from the news editor at a nonprofit news site who used AI to edit stories and then fired a reporter for raising objections, to Salesforce's cutting 4,000 customer support jobs and shifting to AI agents."
"However, the incident at NEDA captures two stark realities of the current economic and technological moment: an enthusiastic and essentially unregulated embrace of AI on the part of employers on the one hand; and a weak labor movement on the other. Will this dynamic bring about a labor resurgence? It was, after all, an earlier fight for worker dignity amid rapid technological change-the Industrial Revolution-that brought the union movement into existence more than a century ago."
NEDA summarily dismissed helpline staff after a unionization effort and attempted to replace them with an AI-powered chatbot. Similar incidents show employers rapidly integrating AI, including editors using AI to edit stories and large firms cutting customer support roles in favor of AI agents. Employers often embrace AI without comprehensive regulation, increasing risks of job displacement and workplace change. Labor movements are responding by integrating AI concerns into contract fights, organizing campaigns, and public policy debates. Historical parallels suggest that technological upheaval can catalyze labor resurgence, though current labor power remains uneven across sectors.
Read at Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice.
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