Workers and Machines #3

What we're up to

AI is a collective bargaining issue: The TUC held its Collective Bargaining on AI Forum at Congress House, bringing together over 50 reps, officers, lawyers, academics and civil society organisations. A first of its kind for the movement, the goal of the event was to accelerate engagement with AI as an industrial issue. 

We began by grounding the day in the long arc of the movement – a reminder that workers have always fought to turn technological change into social progress. Robin Allen KC set out the legal context, before delegates workshopped how the TUC’s AI Bill could be adapted into practical collective agreement clauses.

Lightning talks from CWU, NAPO and Equity showed how differently AI is landing across sectors, and that each needs a tailored response. We then dug into the pros and cons of an AI agreement between Teamsters and UPS, before hearing from Anna Iovine, an organiser from NewsGuild‑CWA, on how journalists in New York organised and won an AI collective agreement. 

The TUC will be taking this work forward, recognising the need to have momentum within the movement to make political and policy change a reality. 

AI is a women’s issue: A motion calling for regulation of synthetic performers was passed at the TUC’s annual Women's Conference. Jean Rogers from Equity’s Women’s Committee spoke to the motion, which highlighted the dangers of AI-generated actors in reinforcing existing inequalities: “women can be replaced with a product that never complains, ages, resists, or asks for safety and fair pay”.

Movement movements - from across the pond

With the special relationship perpetually in the news, we thought we’d take a little look at what the movement’s been up to in the States.

Therapists strike over AI patient screening: Thousands of therapists at Kaiser Permanente – America's largest private nonprofit insurer and healthcare provider – in Northern California went on a one-day strike over risky AI use in patient screening. Nurses and engineers joined the picket line in solidarity. 

Tech workers call out their employers' bad behaviour: When the Pentagon-Anthropic dispute came to a head at the end of last month (here’s a timeline of the ongoing saga ICYMI), workers from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft published a joint statement: “our employers are already complicit in providing their technologies to power mass atrocities and war crimes; capitulating to the Pentagon’s intimidation will only further implicate our labor in violence and repression.”  

By contrast, some unions and Big Tech get controversially close: 

Teamsters president Sean O'Brien and Palantir CEO Alex Karp appeared on a panel together, hosted by right-wing think tank American Compass. Meanwhile OpenAI is partnering with North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) to use union workers for it colossal data centre build out.

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Take it from workers who are winning on AI: in case you missed our Collective Bargaining on AI Forum, here's a quick look at a successful campaign from Anna Iovine, an organiser from NewsGuild‑CWA, on how journalists in New York organised and won an AI collective agreement.

In brief: AI-driven job losses or corporate cover story

“I wanted to approach the whole situation with love,” Twitter founder and Block CEO Jack Dorsey said when asked about his choice to wear a hat emblazoned with "LOVE" while announcing that Block would lay off 4,000 employees. Block made record profits in 2025, but the layoffs were happening, allegedly, because AI could do more for less.

Dorsey insisted this was not AI-washing. Others suspected deeper financial issues. His strong commitment to crypto has shaped Block’s direction, leading some to suggest that a crypto winter and a weak stock price were more likely drivers of the job cuts. 

Still, Block’s shares rose more than 20 percent after the announcement. Shareholders are benefiting from speculation, and executive pay is often tied to share price. Combined with pressure from corporate boards to adopt AI, the incentive to signal leadership on AI is strong. 

Whatever the real role of AI at Block, this highlights a longer-term problem in the corporate sector: short-term profit seeking to reward shareholders, even when it harms the business. If AI can (or can be seen to) make a quick buck, this is likely to happen more.

Equally, AI doesn’t make people redundant. Employers do. And government has carrots and sticks to start shaping better outcomes. In the UK directors’ legal duties can be reframed to incorporate long-term company success and take account of wider stakeholders, including workers. Large firms can be required to include a proportion of elected workers on their boards. Taxes on capital and labour can be equalised to incentivize investing and expanding the workforce, not merely optimising them away.

Events etc

TUC - The human price of dynamic pay: As platforms increasingly use opaque algorithms to set pay, this session will examine what this means for gig workers’ earnings, working conditions, and bargaining power. Speakers from the TUC, Worker Info Exchange, Nottingham Trent University, GMB, and a platform driver will share insights, followed by a short Q&A. To RSVP, drop a line to our colleague Peter. 

16 April | 11:00am–12:00pm | online 

Connected by Data - Student Voice on AI in Education:  For those working in the education sector, Connected by Data will be exploring the methods and findings from their distributed dialogue with over 1000 students on their views on how Generative AI should be used in education. RSVP here.

22 April | 3:00pm–4:00pm | online 

Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers - Who Controls the Future of Work: Can we have a progressive pro-worker AI strategy? How do we defend workers and shape technological change? Can we turn AI from a threat into a site of democratic power? Moving on from the theoretical, we want to focus on what narratives, organising, policy and legal regimes we need to get there. Speakers from TUC, UNISON, AWO and Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. Free tickets here.  

28 April | 7:00pm–8:30pm | Pelican House, London E1 5QJ