Workers and Machines #4

What we’re up to

It’s been a busy few weeks at Congress House.

We've been making the case for worker power in our submission to the Business and Trade select committee’s inquiry into Artificial Intelligence, business and the future of the workforce. When workers are routinely excluded from decisions about how tech is introduced at work, we won’t see the benefits from AI for anyone except a tiny few.

On a related note, the TUC launched a report highlighting the Human Price of Dynamic Pay, shining a light on how algorithms are being used to obscure pay transparency and drive down rates in the gig economy.

We're also pushing for a tech sector that works for everyone through the Women in Tech Taskforce. DSIT's consultation has closed, but with TUC Assistant General Secretary Kate Bell on the taskforce, we're still keen to hear from affiliates about the experiences of women working in tech. Reply to this e-mail if you want to get involved. 

And finally, Adam is representing the TUC on Sadiq Khan’s London AI and Jobs Taskforce. As ever, he we will be pushing for a pro-worker AI strategy here in the capital.

Movement movements

Just as Google in the US were dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s on their contract with the Pentagon, workers at Google DeepMind in the UK voted to unionize. Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite at the London office of Google DeepMind have submitted a letter to management requesting recognition of the CWU and Unite to jointly represent staff. Workers told the Guardian that they don’t want to see the products of their labour used to support authoritarianism and genocide. This is the first ‘frontier AI lab’ to seek union recognition, but (hopefully) not the last.

The IWGB Game Workers Union has filed legal action against Scottish game studio Build Rocket Boy over the company's use of surveillance software on employee devices. Management secretly installed monitoring software on work devices (including ones used by employees working from home). Despite removing it after a 40-person grievance, they still won't say what they collected or why. This is the latest in series of disputes with the company, which involves internal saboteurs, the Epstein files, and one poorly reviewed video game. You can read about in IWGB's press release.

A group of Meta’s UK employees have started organizing a drive for unionization with UTAW-CWU. You can read more about their call to action here. Meanwhile in the U.S., flyers have been distributed around Meta’s offices encouraging workers to protest the company’s plans to track employee’s mouse movements in order to train AI agents. Reuters reports that the fliers encourage workers to sign a petition opposing the move.

Bookmark this:

Some good news stories: Partnership on AI has published three case studies on how unions are navigating AI adoption. They show how unions won AI protections for members across different industries and countries.

Dot-com crash 2.0 (maybe): A Tech Policy Press podcast episode from April discussing whether the AI boom is a bubble, and what the consequences might be if it bursts.

More motivation: Lowell Peterson writes, “AI systems do not develop themselves; AI companies do. AI does not implement itself in the workplace; employers do. AI will not destroy or devalue our jobs by itself, unless we let it.”

In brief: Workers actually have significant leverage right now

The AI hype machine has been extraordinarily effective. Tech executives have claimed AI will outsmart us,make work optional, and potentiallykill us all. And with CEOs commanding limitless airtime for theiroften baseless predictions and unhinged political philosophies, it's perhaps unsurprising that governments got swept up. Some jobs may go, but it will all be worth it for the inevitable productivity growth. Think of the efficiency. Think of the abundance.

However, enthusiasm isn’t a strategy. So far, no one has made a compelling argument for workers and that is where public support starts to fracture.

The frustration is not hard to understand. Outside conferences and LinkedIn posts, AI doesn't signal a glossy future for many people. It prompts fear of deepening precarity and spiking electricity prices and of displaced workers competing with one another.

Communities around the UK are watching what’s happening in the States and drawing their own conclusions. Data centres have left residents with undrinkable water,rising energy bills, and constant noise pollution.At home, deals like the one givingmillions of pounds and access to NHS patient datato Palantir are hard to separate from the broader politics of the companies involved. And every contract government signs makes that relationship harder to reverse.

Meanwhile AI is being shoehorned into workplaces by executives chasing efficiency savings. The people who will actually be using the AI tools are shut out of decisions about what’s implemented and why. Too often they are treated as a cost to be reduced, a resistance to be overcome, a skills gap to be filled.

But transformation requires the cooperation and trust of the workforce, and that cannot be mandated from above. An obvious consequence of the failure to do so is that AI use in workplaces isn’t productive across the board. Some workers, like software engineers, are seeing legitimate time saving and productivity increases. Others have uneven take-up, widespread use of ‘shadow IT’, and workers actively undermining their company’s AI strategies. This weak adoption is rattling tech companies and concerning policy makers –a bubble might burst; political blow back may grow.

This is where the union movement gives workers real leverage, both politically and in workplaces, to demand a better offer. Employers who want effective AI adoption need to negotiate with workers and their unions over the risks and benefits, so that any productivity gains are shared through higher wages or shorter working time – rather than being used to cut jobs and grow corporate profits. AI cannot just be deployed, it needs to be designed, governed and negotiated.

Government too must offer a tech future for workers that doesn’t just further enrich a handful of elites. That means legislating to protect rights, exploring tax policy that responds to changes in where profits accumulate, social security that protects people through disruption, and taking on vested interests to make sure the gains of the wealth we all create is shared.

Events etc

Making the Future Work: Hosted by the UK’s leading future of work research and development institute, Making the Future Work convenes senior stakeholders across industry, research, technology, investment and policy. The TUC's Kate Bell will be one of the ;panelists.
18 May | 9 AM - 4:30 PM | IET London: Savoy Place

King's AI Summit: The King's AI Summit: Workforce Futures: convening senior leaders from government, business, public sector, trade unions and the research community to examine the innovations driving today's AI models and address urgent questions about their impact on jobs, skills, expertise, inequality and the quality of work. Adam and Kate will both be speaking.
19 – 20 May |  9 AM - 7 PM | KCL Strand Campus

Future of Work conference: organised by Anglia Ruskin University and Chelmsford Trades Union Council. Hear from trade unionists and ARU researchers about the changing landscape of work, how it impacts workers and can ensure equality and inclusion. 
27 May |  11 AM - 4 PM | ARU Chelmsford