Organized Labor Is ‘Confronting Artificial Intelligence As An Existential Danger To Workers’ As The National AFL

Organized Labor Is ‘Confronting Artificial Intelligence As An Existential Danger To Workers’ As The National AFL-CIO Calls AI "The Single Biggest Threat To Working People Of Our Lifetime."

Rebecca Davis O’Brien at The New York Times reports Tim Suitter knows change is coming to Bath Iron Works, creeping up the adjacent Kennebec River in Maine like a foreboding fog. Suitter, the President of the Union that represents more than 4,400 Workers who build ships for the U.S. Navy at the shipyard, knows Workers must be prepared for the arrival of Artificial Intelligence (AI). "It's going to be here," said Suitter, 50. "You have to wrap your head around it." Last month, when Local S6 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) negotiated a new five-year contract with the Defense Company that runs the shipyard, the Union insisted on updating long-standing language about technology. Now the Union must be informed at the "conceptual stage," rather than at implementation, of "any proposed addition or modified technology, equipment or process," including AI and robotics. Unions are confronting AI as an existential danger to Workers, not only because of the possibility of massive job losses but also because of its hand in the widening gap between wages and corporate profits. In April, National AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler called AI "the single biggest threat to Working People of our lifetime."

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