Artificial intelligence (AI) presents both a large opportunity for employers — and potentially a source of reputational risk — depending on how its adoption is handled. As AI transforms the workplace, unions are responding with a mix of concern, advocacy, and strategic adaptation. For employers—especially those in unionized environments—understanding these responses is essential to effective labor relations and for ensuring compliance with emerging legal and regulatory frameworks.
This article outlines some key labor positions on AI and offers practical guidance for employers navigating this evolving landscape.1
“AI” here will refer to an emerging definition of “AI system,” set down in EU law and recently adapted in a proposed AI law for New York. The definitions below center around a concept of “inference”; historically a function left to human workers (with emphasis added):
European Labor AI Act definition of AI system:
“AI system” means a machine-based system that is designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment, and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as predictions, content, recommendations, or decisions that can...
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