Good morning, everyone. It’s great to be here with you, and I want to thank Mark, Steve; the entire leadership team and each member of the National Press Club — for the invitation to speak this morning, and for the work you do every day. I want to especially thank Zach [Cohen], as well, for joining me in discussion in a few minutes, which I’m really looking forward to.
I also want to say, in the wake of what we saw on Saturday night — as we see a country that is so polarized — where we see more and more political violence, especially against our journalists — who have been detained, assaulted, threatened at rates we’ve never seen these past few years: America’s workers know it’s essential we have a press that is free; that is protected; that speaks truth to power, as we strive to do every day. We stand in solidarity with you, as you do that critical work on the front lines.
We’re here this morning on a sacred day for our labor movement: Workers Memorial Day.
Every year on April 28, we come together to recognize every worker in the history of this country, who has been killed or injured on the job. In 2024, the most recent year we have full data, our estimates show 7.5 million workers were injured or hurt on the job in the private sector. 5,070 were killed on the job. Those numbers are unconscionable.
We grieve for each of them. We bring their families close, as they deal with the loss of a father, a mother, a sibling, a child. But more than anything, we remind ourselves: the single best way to honor those workers, is to build a future where things are better.
Where every worker in this country has safety on the job; knows their rights are protected; feels confident they have a good future ahead of them.
And so I can’t think of a more fitting day to talk about A.I. — the single biggest threat to working people of our lifetime, if we don’t harness it properly.
I want to tell you a story I heard a few weeks ago from an Amazon warehouse worker named Isaiah in Bessemer, Alabama.
On Isaiah’s first day they told him to go to the daily “stand up,” where you get your shift assignments. And his boss handed Isaiah what they told him was a scanner — just to literally scan the packages he was helping ship out.
What he did not know then; what his boss never told him was: that scanner was tracking every single move he made, and reporting it back to management: how many steps he took in a day; how long it took him to get from his station to the bathroom; how long he had been in the bathroom.
It’s called “time off task,” and if it’s more than five minutes, it triggers an alert, and you can be disciplined or fired — often by app.
And heaven forbid if you were standing too close to a co-worker, because, based on their GPS — you might be talking to each other trying to unionize.
Then one day, one of Isaiah’s co-workers says, “I’m not feeling so great; I’ve been hauling heavy boxes and shipments all over this facility for nearly 10 hours; is there something else I can do?”
And the manager said, “Well, let me run that up the system.” Here’s what he meant by that: He plugged what the worker said into an algorithm that spit out an “answer” the manager was supposed to give. And that answer was, “you either do that same job today, or you’re fired.”
Keep in mind this is in Bessemer, Alabama — a city with more than double the national poverty rate. And so you can imagine the pressure this worker felt to say “alright, I’m gonna try to suck it up, get back out there so I can hang onto this job and support my family.”
That worker died on the job near the end of his shift. Because there wasn’t a human being to deliver some common sense in a moment that called for it.
As he laid there, and the Amazon managers figured out what to do, they told Isaiah and his co-workers to keep “working around” the body.
And all of those workers — desperate to keep their jobs, afraid of that “Time Off Task” algorithm, they kept going, as their coworker laid there on the ground.
100 years ago “worker safety” meant not getting your hand chopped off on the job.
“Worker safety” was workers at my union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, dying by the day — as they put up the power lines that electrified America.
Today it’s workers being surveilled, fired, hurt, even killed by companies that use A.I. without guardrails.
And in case that story I told you a moment ago seems like some isolated incident; some one-off issue that Amazon has now corrected — it just happened again, at another Amazon warehouse in Oregon, about two weeks ago.
I can tell you from traveling this country, talking to workers on the front lines: We are not anti-technology. We are not anti-innovation. There are so many workers in our movement who are excited to use A.I., who are already finding ways to help them do their jobs better.
What we are is anti-greed. We are against these forces being used without our input; without our control; and at great risk to our jobs and our own lives, the way they were at those Amazon warehouses.
That’s what we are seeing far too much of right now, in workplaces and on job sites all over the country. And I’m here today to sound the alarm.
For way too long now, this conversation about the future of work has centered around the vision of a half-dozen Big Tech billionaires. They go on CNBC, or to Davos — as I saw firsthand — and they lay out their plans for an A.I. future; their ideas for who should win, who should lose in this new economy. What they say is treated as gospel; like it’s the only point-of-view that could possibly matter.
And what has been missing, conveniently, from those conversations — what has always been missing — is the voice of the people who actually do the work.
Who interact with these technologies every day on our jobs; who are going to have our lives and our futures shaped by them.
We’ve been in this space for the better part of a decade now. Back in 2017 we put together a Commission on the Future of Work, which led to our Tech Institute. We’ve built our own expertise, shaped collective bargaining strategies, gotten our arms around the change we knew was coming.
A few weeks ago, so much of that work came together in our Workers-First A.I. Summit — where we brought together leaders across labor, industry, academics, coalition partners. And the word that came up over and over again, that every single speaker touched on was urgency. This is not, contrary to what some may tell you, a 2028 issue; an issue to be figured out “sooner or later.”
This is a right now issue. It is something working people are thinking about every single day, as they think about their futures; their families; the lives their kids will have.
And today, I want to share some fascinating data that speaks to exactly that.
For the past four months, we’ve been working on the most in-depth study we’ve ever fielded — into workers’ feelings on A.I. What’s happening at their jobs; how strong the need is for safety and data protection; the policies they are demanding in this moment. Our research team has been running focus groups, going on listening tours in communities across the country. We have now combined those sessions with a new survey — where we’ve talked to more than 1,200 workers, understanding how they’re feeling about A.I. on the job.
We’re going to put the full research out next Tuesday, one week from today — but our toplines came in just yesterday, and I thought I’d give you a preview this morning.
There’s a very clear story in this research. About half of workers say their employers are using A.I. Some told us: I’m scared; I’m anxious; I don’t know what this means for my job down the line. Others are more neutral.
But I’ll tell you what unites workers in this country right now:
95% say a human being, not a machine, should make the final call on hiring, firing, and how much they get paid.
92% want transparency and accountability when employers use A.I.
And I want to pause for a second because everyone in this room knows — those numbers are in universal background checks territory. They are in Medicare Rx negotiation territory. Overwhelming consensus, across party lines.
And I want to share with you what I think is the most telling statistic we’ve found.
94% of workers say they should know if A.I. is being used to monitor them. And yet only 7% say: “My employer has disclosed to me if they are monitoring me with AI or not.”
That is a 10-to-1 gap in what working people in this country expect and what employers are telling them. That’s employers in pretty much every major industry in America, doing to millions of workers exactly what Amazon did to Isaiah.
So we have a vast majority of American workers, who share the same views on how we move forward.
The next question is: How do we get there? Who do we trust to fight for those policies, and deliver that kind of change? And on that question: there is only one force in this country that working people trust to do that. They do not trust Democrats; they do not trust Republicans. They sure as hell do not trust Big Tech or their employers, all of which are polling underwater. The institution that workers trust more than any other to fight for them right now on A.I., by far is the labor movement.
We are the only force in this country with net positive trust in this country — regardless of the political party people belong to.
And when it comes to Independents — those swing voters, who say they’re disaffected, that they aren’t listening to anyone — the same voters who are going to decide these midterms and 2028 as well-they are more than five times as likely to trust the labor movement, than a political party.
We are the trusted voice right now — when it comes to the policy and the politics.
And if you look around D.C. today, you see exactly why. We have a Congress and an administration that has found the time to shut this city down, roll out a red carpet for a literal king, but can’t do the thing 9 in 10 workers want them to do, and pass common-sense A.I. guardrails.
We are sick and tired of the inaction.
And if our leaders aren’t going to do it — we’re going to stand together and fight for it ourselves, because we don’t have a day to waste.
Last year a nurse in Nevada, named Adam, had an elderly woman come in with dangerously low blood pressure. The hospital’s A.I. system flagged her for sepsis — life threatening. The A.I. system said immediate IV fluids — until Adam noticed a dialysis catheter on her collarbone, which meant flooding her with fluids could kill her. Adam brought it up; and the charge nurse said: No, no, we need to follow the official A.I. protocol. And thank god, Adam made the decision that he did in that moment to stand up and refuse to do it: a doctor was brought in who agreed with Adam and he saved that woman’s life.
That’s an extreme example — but so many of us have been in situations like that where the technology doesn’t match our lived experience, right?
We have bartenders at casinos in Vegas, where the bosses have said: We don’t need you anymore; we can just have a robot make the drinks, with no sense if that customer has had one too many and needs to be cut off; professional athletes, who make these split-second decisions on whether to pass left or right on a soccer field–now being questioned by a coach listening to the A.I. evaluation.
Journalists who are seeing their life’s work, pieces they’ve worked on for weeks, edited by A.I., so that it might better appeal to certain audiences and sell more ad revenue.
There is no worker, no industry this does not touch. Every job is now a technology job, period. We’re at the most important fork in the road our economy has faced in the last hundred years.
Last month one of the big banks put out their latest projections on A.I. and the economy. And it said, on the conservative side, 7% of workers displaced by A.I., at this current pace, over the next few years. We have about 163 million workers in America — does anyone want to do some back-of-the-envelope math with me?
That’s 12 million Americans: a group of people the size of Pennsylvania, losing their jobs. Does anyone think that calls for business as usual? Is that going to create stability in our country?
Does anyone want to continue on this race-to-the-bottom we’re on right now — where workers are being fired; discriminated against; surveilled without our consent … where this handful of billionaires, one soon to be a trillionaire, get to play God with our economy and our lives? Hell no.
We know we can do better, don’t we?
We know it in the labor movement — because workers have done better, every single time in this country’s history. We’ve dealt with changes in technology since our inception. The so-called Industrial Revolutions that transformed our economy, literally launched our labor movement at the turn of the century.
And we’ve evolved every time — the steam engine where we went from farming to factories, and textile workers and autoworkers came together to fight for the eight hour day; the electrification of America, as I mentioned earlier; the digital age with computers, when office workers adapted and innovated — every time we make these technologies better, safer, work for ALL of us.
And now in this A.I. revolution — we’re going to do it again. Labor is going to lead again.
As I said: We’ve made A.I. and the future of work a priority for the better part of a decade now. Over the past few years we’ve had some of the biggest contract wins in our history:
Our labor unions out in Hollywood — SAG-AFTRA, WGA, and IATSE, all putting A.I. front and center in their latest contracts, and winning groundbreaking protections.
Those casino workers and bartenders I told you about earlier, part of UNITE HERE — packed a literal basketball stadium in Las Vegas, twice, threatening to strike over A.I. — and won some of the strongest protections we’ve ever seen.
Journalists at POLITICO, part of our CWA family, who won an historic victory against AI misuse, when management tried to roll it out without their consent or knowledge, and directly violated their contract.
But this moment demands even more. Which is why, late last year, we put forth our Workers First A.I. Agenda.
A clear set of eight policy principles that say:
- No, you can’t surveil us in the bathroom.
- No, you can’t steal our data without our consent.
- No, you’re not going to discriminate against us, or fire us by app because a machine told you to.
An agenda that gives workers a voice at the table, shaping technology in every workplace — classrooms, factories, airports, Social Security offices, film sets, everywhere.
That demands training for workers, young people especially, to be prepared for A.I. on the job, and helps our educators teach those skills in our schools.
That protects our civil rights — so we are all treated equally and fairly by these technologies.
And ensures our most basic right as workers — to organize and stand together in a union — is strengthened, for every worker in this country.
These are not just eight principles anymore. They are a mandate — to deliver a vision for people, a future that is human made.
Every single principle laid out in that agenda… polls between 75% and 96% among voters. And Democrats, Republicans, and Independents are within a handful of points on every one.
Labor is going to use every lever at our disposal — to bring them to life right now.
You’re going to see these demands in our contracts — as I spoke about earlier.
You’re going to see us shaping state-level policy, where our local leaders are fighting for laws like the FAIR Act in Massachusetts and No Robo Bosses in California — protecting workers from A.I. discrimination, and stopping machines from having the final say in hiring and firing decisions.
You’re going to see unconventional partnerships we form with companies like Microsoft who have said, yes, we recognize it’s better for business and labor when workers have that seat at the table.
But I want to tell the journalists here today: You will feel this in every bit of our political work on the ground, in the run up to these midterms and beyond.
We are the movement that was banging the drum, for so long, on affordability — that got politicians in this country to start talking about groceries, and rent, and everything in people’s lives getting more and more expensive, which they do every day now.
And that’s what we’re going to do on A.I.
Not just for 2028 — but today, every day, until these midterms.
There are Big Tech PACs spending hundreds of millions of dollars for candidates who will give them that deregulation agenda. They’re going to learn exactly what Elon Musk has learned so many times these past few years: You cannot buy a movement.
We are year-round organizers. This is what we do: working people, on the ground, talking to each other, being those trusted voices for friends, family, co-workers.
We’re out in swing states right now, earlier than we’ve ever been: rallying folks; connecting with them long before Election Day, building those relationships.
We’re going to take this research and make sure it is spread far and wide — across our coalition, so that everyone knows what workers are demanding.
Every two weeks between now and our convention in June: we’ll be putting out new updates on A.I. and our research; new ways for workers to get involved; and at that convention, we’ll roll out a mass education campaign to keep that drumbeat going.
And when it does come to 2028 — where we know the shadow primary is already underway, and we’ll be seeing candidate announcements early next year — let me just say this.
For any candidate who wants the support of our unions — who claims to be a champion of working people, like the Governor out there in California — this is your moment, to tell us which side you’re on.
You can’t say you’re for common-sense legislation, then veto it, because the Big Tech CEOs who write campaign checks told you to.
You’re either with workers in this country or you’re with the billionaires and Big Tech.
Those Amazon tragedies I spoke of at the beginning: the stories of how workers are experiencing technology in their workplaces right now — they’ve come from good journalists like those in this room. Thank you for the work you do.
And I’ll tell you when I read these stories, and talk to those workers myself — the same common theme always comes up. “They tried to divide us; isolate us; make us feel like our voice didn’t matter; that we were powerless.”
What these companies have done in fact is the exact opposite.
They’ve united workers all over this country. They’ve made workers wake up to their power; to what is possible in a union.
At our last convention we set a goal to add a million new members to this movement over the next decade, instead, we did it in two years.
Nearly half a million workers last year alone joined a union — and we have more workers in this country covered by a union contract than in the last 16 years.
Labor is on the rise. We have the power. And we’re going to use every bit of it to build a future that works for ALL of us. Thank you.