CWA Is Leading a Worker-Centered Approach to AI and the Future

By CWA President Claude Cummings Jr.

As artificial intelligence reshapes our jobs faster than lawmakers can respond, union contracts are the most effective way workers can set enforceable rules for the future of work. CWA is leading the labor movement in developing strategies to empower workers in the age of AI. We know that only union contracts can move at the speed of technological change, and we are working to give workers a voice in creating guardrails.

Only union contracts can move at the speed of technological change.

New AI technology has the potential to create economic benefits and improve lives. However, it also presents profound challenges to the rights and livelihoods of workers. Out-of-touch C-suite executives promise starry-eyed investors that AI tools will replace skilled workers. More often, our members correct AI errors while new AI tools are used to cut jobs, intensify surveillance, and automate management.

In previous eras of technological transformation, as our jobs changed dramatically, we have seen management use new technologies to degrade the dignity of our work.

We’ve seen the adoption of new technologies that have intensified and sped up our work, seeking to control workers and turn the complex jobs of technicians and customer service professionals into deskilled box-checking at the expense of customers. We’ve seen new job opportunities created by technology, such as internet and wireless communication technologies—but those jobs were often created outside the union’s jurisdiction, and employers sought to keep us from organizing them. The tactics of the tech CEOs are nothing we haven’t seen before.

CWA has a long and proud history of bargaining over new technologies.

CWA has a long and proud history of bargaining over new technologies, limiting their negative impacts on workers, customers, and the public while ensuring that workers win their fair share of the economic gains that new innovations bring.

We are not opposed to the use of new technologies like artificial intelligence. We recognize its potential for scientific advancement and economic benefit. Like all tools, the outcome depends on who is allowed input. The best way to protect people—as workers, customers, voters, parents, and members of their communities—is for all of us to have a say in how these tools are used.

Workers impacted by technology must guide how it is implemented.

CWA members and leaders do not accept that the effects of AI systems are inevitable or predetermined. What we’ve learned in our decades of worker advocacy is simple: workers impacted by technology must guide how it is implemented. Otherwise you risk technology being turned into a weapon by which the billionaires hold on to power while impoverishing the rest of us.

In every district and sector of our union, CWA members and leaders are facing AI challenges head-on, using existing contract language to shape the implementation of AI technologies in the workplace, bargaining new protections into our contracts, and building strength by mobilizing and organizing around AI concerns. Our solidarity is our strength, and CWA members and leaders have shared their knowledge, empowering other working people to organize for a seat at the table.

We can shape AI into a tool for progress, not exploitation.

AI has the potential to build prosperity and unleash human creativity, but only if it works for working people. Together, we can ensure that AI serves as a tool for progress, not exploitation. We can build a future where technology enhances human potential, supports good jobs, and strengthens our communities.

As a union, we will continue to fight tooth and nail for our jobs, for our futures, and for the dignity of our work.