How unions are shaping the future of work in the age of AI

AI at the bargaining table

Some 4.66 million industrial robots are already installed on factory floors worldwide and 83 million jobs are at risk by 2027. Employment in mechanical engineering is shrinking in Europe while ICT and electronics is booming across Asia. IndustriALL sector director Alexander Ivanou pointed to companies like Tesla, covering mechanical engineering and ICT, with enormous market value and no union, as a symbol of the organizing challenge unions face today.

AI is no longer a technology question, it is a labour question. Work organization, employment, skills, wages, privacy and data protection are all now affected by algorithmic systems. Delegates heard from Martin Peters of IndustriALL Europe on the need for collective agreements with built-in adaptation clauses. From the Netherlands, Jacob Plat of FNV put it plainly: digitalisation should be negotiated, not imposed. Workers must be involved in decisions about AI and automation before implementation, not after.

The human cost: surveillance, stress and psychosocial risk

Idawati Binti Idrus from Malaysia described how turnstile data is used to identify workers' mistakes, with records printed for HR investigations in ways that affect pay and bonuses. Corinne Schewin of the white-collar union CFE-CGC in France laid out the psychosocial risks workers face: work intensity, emotional demands, lack of autonomy, value conflict and job insecurity. The data show that young people and women are particularly at risk. Eduard Pakhlevanyan from the Union organizations of miners, metallurgists and jewellers of Republic of Armenia asked the question that framed the afternoon: what is the line between digital progress and digital pressure?

Engaging professional STEM workers

As STEM and professional workers increasingly fill roles alongside blue-collar workers, unions must adapt to different expectations and ways of engaging. NUMSA in South Africa has adapted the rules and bargaining frameworks to include these workers. Despite limited awareness, doubts about relevance and the risks of union busting, IndustriALL affiliates are finding new ways to connect with STEM and white-collar workers. Peer-to-peer organizing, early university engagement and giving workers a real say in shaping their workplace are all proving effective.

"The challenge is clear, but so is the opportunity. The question is how we adapt, innovate and connect,"

said Armelle Seby, director for white-collar workers and gender.

From policy to action

Two recent developments give unions concrete international leverage. The ILO's conclusions on AI in manufacturing establish that AI must serve decent work, productivity growth and just transition. The newly adopted ILO Convention 193 on decent work in the platform economy sets a precedent for regulating algorithmic management wherever AI governs work.

As IndustriALL's industrial director Diana Junquera Curiel said:

"The Convention is one of the most visible examples that AI is governing our work. We cannot leave this technology unregulated. That is why this is so important."

IndustriALL's AI policy paper and Just Transition guide of practice translate these standards into concrete union demands. But international tools alone are not enough.

Delegates agreed that cross-sectoral cooperation and union solidarity are essential to organizing workers and defending decent work AI. They committed to joint action in the coming years:

• Share good practices on collective bargaining and transition plans
• Develop strategies to organize workers, including skilled STEM workers
• Mainstream gender and youth into AI activities
• Build education and training programmes on AI, just transition and psychosocial risks
• Promote social dialogue and lifelong learning for all workers

Said IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kan Matsuzaki:

"The path forward is straightforward: organize workers from the ground up to build power in the workplace, negotiate stronger collective agreements and create the conditions to regulate technology in workers' interests."