Oct 3, 2024 - How AI is Affecting Surveillance at Work

Hurricane Helene has caused catastrophic damage across the Southeast. CWA members in the region who work for AT&T are already stretched thin after their month-long strike. Communication with and travel to many areas is still difficult, but our locals have been doing whatever is possible to deliver supplies and provide immediate assistance to CWA members and retirees. Many CWA members have been working long hours to help restore essential services.

Click here to support members with a contribution to the CWA District 3 Disaster Relief Fund online or via check.

Workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport—including many CWA passenger service members—are risking their safety and jobs just to get to and from work. For months, long wait times of 30 minutes or more for the employee shuttle at the airport have caused some members to be late for their shifts. Others, also frustrated by the long wait times after finishing a shift at work, choose to walk back to their cars on the busy parkway, often in the dark.

CWA Local 3645 represents Piedmont Airlines passenger service and ramp agents at CLT and has raised this issue with local news and city government to address the issue. Long wait times for the employee shuttle service also impact other CLT employees, including CWA Local 3641 members who work for American Airlines as passenger service agents.

"You've been a mama, a papa, a lawyer, a doctor; you've been everything to your passengers and customers," Shauntia Bloomfield, a CWA Local 3645 member, recently told WBTV. "Now you just want to go home."

Donielle Prophete, president of CWA Local 3645, says the union will continue to push the airport and city to provide more buses for airport employees.

"The city of Charlotte needs to do better," Prophete told WCNC Charlotte earlier this summer.

 
CWA Local 7621 Secretary-Treasurer Jeanna Schow (right) testifies before Senate staff with Amanda Ballentyne of the AFL-CIO Technology Institute.

On Tuesday, Jeanna Schow, Secretary-Treasurer of CWA Local 7621 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, briefed senators and senate staff on how AI automated feedback tools result in an acceleration of work; expanded monitoring and discipline associated with surveillance; increased workplace stress; and lower job satisfaction.

Senators Bob Casey (D-Penn.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hosted a briefing for senators and their staff on “AI and Automated Management at Work: Understanding and Addressing Impacts on Workers” on Capitol Hill.

Schow, with 23 years of experience with the ways that AI and other technologies have shaped call center work at Lumen Technology, shared how constant AI surveillance has made the job more stressful and how AI monitoring tools have introduced bias against workers when the program fails to recognize certain pronunciations and speech styles.

“Let’s use AI to make jobs better and advance societal goals, not squeeze workers even harder, monitor their every move, and cut jobs,” Schow said.

CWA has endorsed the Stop Spying Bosses Act and the No Robot Bosses Act, bills introduced by Senator Casey to protect and empower workers by creating transparency and guardrails for employers using AI technologies to surveil or manage workers. CWA has been a leader among unions, putting forward AI principles to guide our bargaining strategy and policy positions.

The race to represent New York’s 19th Congressional District is a top priority for CWA and one of the most closely watched in the country as pro-worker Democrats fight to regain control of the House of Representatives. According to the AFL-CIO, incumbent Republican Marc Molinaro has a 10% lifetime voting record on issues important to working people. His challenger, Democrat Josh Riley, is a former U.S. Department of Labor staffer who has worked to help communities hurt by bad trade deals that shipped jobs overseas. Riley has also organized investigations into corporate misconduct that hurt workers and consumers.

NABET-CWA Local 51026 members know how critical it is to elect Josh Riley. That’s why they not only endorsed him but contributed their entire Political Action Fund to his campaign. CWA members make voluntary contributions to our Political Action Fund to defeat anti-worker politicians and elect pro-worker candidates like Josh Riley. You can learn more about how to support the CWA Political Action Fund at cwa.org/cwa-political-action-fund.

 
NABET-CWA Local 51026 President John Ziller (right) and congressional candidate Josh Riley met to discuss his campaign and issues of urgency to the local’s members.

Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris laid out her economic plan for voters in a speech at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh. The speech highlighted Harris’s pragmatic approach, bridging her record as both a “strong supporter of workers and unions” and a “capitalist.”

Harris’s economic plan uplifts the middle class while strengthening American manufacturing in the industries that will define the next century. Her plan addresses the housing crisis that has hit working families and pledges tax credits for “expanding good union jobs.” Harris plans to double union apprenticeships, expanding a pathway for good jobs for the next generation.

"Vice President Harris's economic plan makes clear that she's going to continue doing what she's done her whole career: stand up for good jobs,” said CWA Director of Government Affairs Dan Mauer. “From her time as California Attorney General fighting wage theft to being a leader in the Senate sponsoring pro-worker legislation to making sure as Vice President that she listens to our concerns and takes actions to protect workers' rights, Harris has a history of fighting alongside us. Her new plan would help us create more good union jobs, bring back jobs that have been sent overseas due to bad trade deals, lower costs, and put more money in union members' pockets."

“The cost of living in America is still just too high. You know it, and I know it,” said Harris, who has earned the endorsement of CWA. “All of this is happening at a time when many of the biggest corporations continue to make record profits, while wages have not kept up pace.”

Last week, California became the latest state to prevent employers from forcing workers to attend anti-union “captive audience” meetings when Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 399, the California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act. This law also bans companies from forcing workers to attend meetings with political or religious themes. Eight states now have similar protections in place.

Companies and the anti-union consultants they hire frequently hold captive audience meetings to persuade workers not to join unions, particularly if the workers are actively engaged in an organizing campaign. Ending this practice and putting in place other reforms so that workers have a free and fair choice about whether or not to join a union has been a priority for CWA.

“Our locals and our District 9 legislative team worked with the California labor federation to pass this bill so that workers who want to organize to join our union can do so without having to hear anti-union propaganda from corporations and their high-paid consultants,” said CWA District 9 Vice President Frank Arce. "We’d like to thank Senator Wahab for authoring and Senator Durazo for co-authoring this legislation, and Governor Newsom for signing SB 399 into law.”

Members of the World of Warcraft Gamemakers Guild-CWA recently gained union recognition, becoming the first wall-to-wall union at Activision Blizzard. Check out their video celebrating this achievement!

 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette striker Tyler Pecyna (left) and PG retiree Patrice Giancola serve as greeters at the 'Tis the Season for Solidarity bake sale. (PHOTO CREDIT: Karen Carlin/Pittsburgh Union Progress, member of TNG-CWA Local 38061)

Name: Tyler Pecyna
Local: The Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh, TNG-CWA Local 38061
Workplace: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Job Title: Editorial graphics/interactive designer
Experience: 10 years
Strike Time: Two years
Quote: “I went on strike nearly two years ago because the Post-Gazette's owners illegally altered my union co-workers' healthcare and refused to treat them with dignity. I'm still on strike nearly two years later because the Post-Gazette's owners are still breaking labor law and treating their union workers without dignity.”
Inspiration: “I'm inspired by the supporters who have stood with us for the long haul, keeping strikers afloat financially and lifting us up emotionally. Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.”

To support striking workers and families, you can do any of these three things today:

1. Donate to the strike fund that's used to pay for rent, utility bills, car repairs, groceries, and to keep their pets alive and well.
    
2. Order a T-shirt repping their strike publication, the Pittsburgh Union Progress. All proceeds go to the same strike fund.
    
3. Subscribe to the Pittsburgh Union Progress for free news on the strike, the lives of working people in Western PA and beyond, and more.