3rd Annual Memphis Labor Council Picnic
Free Concert · Free Food · Overton Park Shell
Where the Labor Movement
Stands on AI
The official position adopted unanimously by the 65 affiliated unions of the AFL-CIO at the 30th Constitutional Convention (2026).
This platform uses AI to help educate and empower workers. We believe in being transparent about that — and about the labor movement's clear demand that AI serve working people, not replace or exploit them. Below is the AFL-CIO's resolution on artificial intelligence, in their own words.
In Their Own Words
“We stand at a crossroads that will define the future of work and the lives of working people. Big Tech billionaires are pushing a relentless agenda to ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) and other rapidly advancing technologies infiltrate every corner of our economy, public services and society… while AI products may create potential benefits, without proper oversight and strong guardrails they present far greater dangers.”
“Unregulated AI is already threatening jobs, degrading job quality, endangering workers' safety and health, undermining labor and civil rights, and dehumanizing and abusing workers through Draconian surveillance and automated management.”
“We stand with workers in demanding a different vision of the future\u2014where working people are in the driver's seat deciding how and whether AI and other advanced technologies are developed and deployed, and ensuring that innovation delivers societal benefits, creates opportunity for everyone and does not lead to more inequality, discrimination or economic disruption.”
— AFL-CIO Resolution 7: “We Want Good Jobs Today and Tomorrow,” 30th Constitutional Convention, 2026
The Workers First AI Agenda
Eight principles calling on industry and government leaders to put working people at the center of AI.
Strengthen labor rights and broaden opportunities for collective bargaining.
Advance guardrails against harmful uses of AI at work.
Support and promote copyright and intellectual property protections.
Develop a worker-centered workforce development and training system.
Institutionalize “worker voice” within AI research and development.
Require transparency and accountability in AI applications.
Model best practices for AI use with government procurement.
Protect workers’ civil rights and uphold democratic integrity.
The Campaign: Guardrails, Guarantees & Growth
Guardrails
Worker-centered legislation in every state to protect people from harms AI can present on and off the job — from discrimination to invasions of privacy to threats to data security and worker health and safety. Government must not deploy AI without strong, enforceable guardrails, and technology must never make rights-determining decisions or be used as an excuse to eliminate positions.
Guarantees
Use every tool — collective action, bargaining, legislation and executive action — to prevent job loss and degradation. Government, employers and Big Tech must share responsibility to strengthen support programs and build a comprehensive social safety net for working people during this economic transition.
Growth
Workers at the table in all stages of innovation so new technologies make jobs safer and better. Employers must bargain over the development and deployment of AI — in the public sector as well as private — and workers must share in the economic gains technology brings.
Built by Union Labor
The resolution also demands that “data centers, the infrastructure that powers them and their supply chains are manufactured, built, operated, secured and maintained in the United States with union labor,” that operators “pay their fair share of energy and water costs,” and that working-class households and communities are protected every step of the way.
“The best way for workers to navigate this new terrain is through unions.”
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