People-Powered Principles for AI

CWA has taken a member-led approach to AI, harnessing the expertise of CWAers with direct experience working with AI programs from diverse industries, including call centers, telecommunications, journalism, airlines, manufacturing, tech, and the public sector.

Our goal in bargaining is not to stop new technologies but to ensure that the benefits of new technologies are broadly shared through the creation of good, high-paying jobs. CWA members and leadership do not accept that the effects of AI systems are inevitable or predetermined. We will hold company executives accountable for the impact that workplace AI systems have on workers, customers, and communities. We will be proactive by bargaining for guardrails that:

• Give workers a voice in implementing AI tools in the workplace;
• Center humans in AI processes and ensure human oversight of AI decisions;
• Protect workers’ personal data, intellectual property, and digital likeness; 
• Protect against invasive surveillance and unfair automated employment decision-making, including hiring, discipline, and pay-setting;
• Guard against unsafe and stressful work intensification and speed-up; 
• Ensure that new technologies are not solely used for cost-cutting and instead improve our ability to serve customers and communities;
• Provide a plan for the transition of workers displaced or affected by new AI tools and systems; 
• Allow workers to refuse work on AI systems they deem unethical; and
• Secure workers their fair share in the economic gains when AI tools increase productivity.

In the policy arena, CWA members will continue to work with the broader labor movement to engage policymakers about the risks and potential benefits of AI across our industries. Government policy should recognize the need for collective bargaining and worker consultation to play central roles in the adoption of AI and strengthen workers’ bargaining power.