Unions split over data centers, AI
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Stock: Getty Images
Unions are facing a conundrum: They like the demand for data center construction because it brings trade work, but they don't like that AI might replace other jobs.
Why it matters: The mixed feelings have led to a split in Big Labor: Trade unions back data centers, while groups like the Teamsters advocate policies to restrict AI.
The big picture: Labor's competing priorities are complicating its political alliances as both parties court union voters.
- Trade unions like the electrical workers and plumbers have formed a new partnership with OpenAI and real estate and financial firm Blackstone to fight moratoriums on data center construction.
- The AFL-CIO is pushing state legislatures to adopt restrictions on AI's use that would prevent it from surveilling workers and making health care decisions without human oversight.
- Teamsters president Sean O'Brien is leading a charge to keep robotaxis and autonomous trucks off the streets unless they have a "safety operator."
What they're saying: "That's always been a misnomer that labor all has to agree on everything," says Arthur Wheaton, director of labor studies at the Cornell ILR Buffalo Co-Lab. "You aren't going to get all the unions to agree. One loses, the other might gain."
State of play: Big Labor can be receptive to technology that helps workers rather than replaces them.
- "A lot of unions will support it if there's training for it and it doesn't replace jobs," Wheaton says. "But if it's replacing people, they don't want anything to do with it."
- UAW president Shawn Fain has criticized the "corporate narrative" that "technology should be used to reduce jobs and make more profits ... and it doesn't have to be that way," he said in a conversation with U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan.
Zoom in: The advent of self-driving vehicles is emerging as a major flashpoint, pitting the Teamsters against Elon Musk's Tesla, Alphabet division Waymo, Amazon's Zoox and self-driving truck startup Aurora.
- Peter Finn, vice president at-large for the Teamsters, says Big Labor has a duty to shape the rollout of AI to ensure that it puts people first.
- "The conversation we're having with elected officials and other interested parties and their communities is to make it clear that we have agency as people," Finn tells Axios. "We get to decide how we want to develop and implement this technology."
- He bashed robotaxis, saying "literally the value proposition of that technology is designed to get rid of the driver" at the expense of the public's safety.
The other side: Autonomous-driving companies argue that too many people die or are injured in vehicle accidents to justify retaining human drivers once the technology is safer.
- Aurora CEO Chris Urmson told Axios that trucking is "a very dangerous job" with "lots of health issues" — and that the Teamsters' effort to thwart self-driving vehicles is misguided.
The bottom line: Big Labor's approach to AI depends on the particular union and its membership.
- "Labor is not one identifiable individual thing — they vote for Trump, they vote for Obama, they vote for whoever," Wheaton says. "There is no single voice for labor."
