At 4th Labor Innovation and Technology Summit, Labor Leaders Underscore Importance of Workers Voices Amid Tech Advances

Today, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) co-hosted their fourth Labor Innovation and Technology Summit, alongside the AFL-CIO Technology Institute, American Federation of Teachers and UNITE HERE. The event coincided with CES (formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show) to examine the impact that emerging technology, like artificial intelligence, could have on workers. 

The panels provided a roadmap for policymakers and labor unions to mitigate impact and maintain a strong workforce in the future. The Summit’s speakers included labor leaders, technology experts and other thought leaders and academics.

Union leaders called for a pro-jobs approach to incorporating tech in the workplace that ensures rapidly evolving technology continues to lift up workers and the American middle class. Panelists demanded that policymakers and businesses make room at the table for workers in discussions about the future of work.

“Workers must have a voice when it comes to decisions about technology,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler during the opening of the Summit. “No one knows our industries, our public sector and our jobs better than we do. No one has better insight into which innovations and inventions will make jobs better, safer and smarter, and which will put people from workers to customers in jeopardy. This is the next frontier of the labor movement and one of our highest priorities.” 

"SAG-AFTRA has had a presence at CES for over 20 years, because we understand the vital importance technology and innovation have on our industry—and our members. And more importantly, that we must continue to have a seat at the table to proactively shape these changes with workers in mind" said SAG-AFTRA Executive Vice President Ben Whitehair. "This summit highlights the fundamental truth that technology impacts every industry, and to ensure a better future for all workers we must stand in solidarity with our siblings in the broader labor movement."

“Every year hundreds of thousands of people gather in Las Vegas for CES where there is no mention of the impact these emerging technologies will have on workers. Most labor-saving technologies are developed without talking to people who do that work every day,” said UNITE HERE President D. Taylor. “UNITE HERE has fought to make sure that hospitality workers are at the table before new tech gets implemented in the workplace — mobilizing our members to take action and even strike when necessary to win the right to have a say over working conditions. This is a fight that the whole labor movement needs to tackle together, and we applaud the AFL-CIO and SAG-AFTRA for bringing this discussion to the forefront.”

After opening the Summit with remarks “written” by an artificial intelligence app, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland explained, “That opening was written by an artificial intelligence app, ChatGPT, which was recently released to the public. What better way to kick off today’s discussions than a showcase of the power, and inherent downfalls, of artificial intelligence, automation and other emerging technologies? The juxtaposition between increased efficiency and labor rights isn’t a new one; workers have long had to advocate for themselves in the face of cost-cutting measures associated with advances in technology.” 

The Summit’s programming alongside CES touched upon the potential disruption of automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other emerging tech with an eye toward how it could make more jobs vulnerable to disruption. The Summit conversations illuminated the importance of including worker voices in discussions about the future of technology and the workplace.

“Technology is a tool — one that can enhance opportunity, or that can be exploited; a force for good, or for harm, depending on how it’s used, which is exactly why the labor movement is holding this discussion during the premier technology event, CES,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “The Labor Innovation and Technology Summit is so much more than discussing whether technology replaces humans. It’s about ensuring that tech innovation enables an opportunity agenda for working people; that the benefits of technology reach all, not just a few; and that workers have a say in the role technology plays in our classrooms, our workplaces and our communities.”

“Too often, the discussions about the future of work have focused on automation, on robots, on new technologies and what gets left out of the story is the impact of those new technologies on workers’ wages, benefits, and working conditions,” said Ford Foundation Vice President of U.S. Programs Sarita Gupta. “But these conversations also presume that technology is good for all, and therefore working people should just adapt to new technological futures without question. But what’s left out of that, is that technology design is based on human design… For that reason, working people can, and must, be at the center in helping to shape and govern technology in the workplace now and into the future.”

Other notable guests at the Summit included:

• Jacky Rosen, U.S. Senator 
• Julie Su, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor 
• Fred Redmond, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer 
• Nina Schick, Generative AI Author and Advisor
• Thomas Kochan, George Maverick Bunker Professor Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management and faculty member in the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research
• Amanda Ballantyne, AFL-CIO Technology Institute Executive Director
• Aiha Nguyen, Data & Society Labor Initiatives Program Director 
• Danielle Van Lier, SAG-AFTRA Senior Assistant General Counsel, Contracts & Compliance

Three panels, Technology Transformation and the Future of Workers, Who Does the Work?: Preparing Workers for Technology Transition and Ethical Adaptation, were open to the public via livestream and explored how automation and artificial intelligence will impact the workforce, how to center workers in the technology transition and bridging gaps between technology and workers.

These discussions are crucial to ensuring that the future of technological innovation and automation makes room for workers in determining what that future looks like. Advances in tech and an increase in automated machines and software are inevitable, but the demise of the human workforce isn't. Organized labor is mobilizing, developing strategies and building infrastructure to help workers minimize tech disruption, mitigate job losses due to automation and create training programs that prepare union workers for the future. 

To watch the Summit, please visit SAG-AFTRA’s Youtube Channel.

About SAG-AFTRA

SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists and other entertainment and media professionals. SAG-AFTRA members are the faces and voices that entertain and inform America and the world. A proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO, SAG-AFTRA has national offices in Los Angeles and New York and local offices nationwide representing members working together to secure the strongest protections for entertainment and media artists into the 21st century and beyond. Visit SAG-AFTRA online at SAGAFTRA.org.