Cleveland’s Workers First Initiative on AI

Workers are at the epicenter of the greatest technological transformation of the modern era—our rights and economic security are at stake.

Now more than ever, workers need the collective power of unions.

WHAT WE’RE DOING

THE TECHNOLOGIES BARGAINING WORKING GROUP: Bringing union leaders together to identify bargaining priorities and share sample contract language and strategies to combat harmful AI.

LEGISLATIVE ADVOCACY: Advocating at every level of government for policies aligned with AFL-CIO principles that protect workers.

RESEARCH & ACADEMIC PARTNERSHIP: Working with Case Western Reserve University, Brown University, and Policy Matters Ohio to research AI’s impact on Cleveland’s workers.

WHAT WE’VE DONE

OCTOBER 2025: NATIONAL AFL-CIO LAUNCHES THE WORKERS FIRST INITIATIVE ON AI AND THE PRINCIPLES TO PROTECT WORKERS.

FEBRUARY 2026: NORTH SHORE AFL-CIO HOLDS WORKERS FIRST AI SUMMIT, BRINGING TOGETHER MORE THAN 70 UNION LEADERS, ACADEMICS, LAWMAKERS, AND COMMUNITY PARTNERS.

MAY 2026: BROWN UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHER SONYA RASHKOVAN BEGINS RESEARCH ON HOW AI IS AFFECTING WORKERS IN GREATER CLEVELAND.

JULY 2026: NORTH SHORE AFL-CIO LAUNCHES TECHNOLOGIES BARGAINING WORKING GROUP, BRINGING UNION LEADERS TOGETHER TO IDENTIFY BARGAINING PRIORITIES AND TO SHARE RESOURCES.

  • Overall union favorability is at the highest it’s been in half a century. Working people know giant corporations and tech firmscannot be trustedto self-regulate this revolutionary technology.
  • Employers are currently deploying increasingly sophisticated AI-enhanced technologies without workers’ consent in order to hire, monitor, evaluate, discipline and even fire workers. 
  • This is just the beginning: The New York Times reports that nearly half of all jobs will be exposed to some form of AI automation that will disrupt and displace workers in the coming years. 
  • Of those who will see their jobs erased in the next 10 years, nearly 80% could make less than $38,000 annually.  
  • Without protections, working women and people of color will experience the worst social and economic outcomes of this technology.
  • In order to protect workers’ job quality, safety and rights, working people must be included in the design, development and implementation of artificial intelligence. 
  • Labor unions are the most powerful tool workers have to demand inclusion.
  • Labor unions do not oppose AI. AI has the potential to unleash prosperity that improves working conditions and lifts us all up. But if left unchecked in the hands of corporate profiteers, AI will increase economic inequality, curtail our rights and undermine our democracy.
  • We want to have a voice in how this technology is designed and implemented to improve workers’ job quality and agency—not undermine it. 

Workers don’t just adjust to technology. Through our expertise, we make it better—safer, fairer and more efficient—because workers are the experts when it comes to getting the job done and done well.