What do trade unions and workers say about AI?

Eight voices from the unions, the International Labour Organization and the workers who make the machine work, and they ask for two things. A seat: Christy Hoffman of UNI Global Union says workers 'must be included in the process'; Paul Nowak of the TUC says technological change delivers social progress 'only when workers and unions are empowered'; Gilbert Houngbo of the ILO says the future of work 'will not be determined by technology alone'. And a share: Liz Shuler of the AFL-CIO calls it the most important fork in the road in a hundred years. Behind them, 97 Kenyan data labellers and content moderators describe watching 'murder and beheadings, child abuse and rape' for less than two dollars an hour. Anita Gurumurthy names the cost: 'break things, break people, break the environment'.

This is one of nine slices of the register of what the world's leaders say about AI, which sets out how every quotation was found and checked twice against its source. 8 union leaders, institutions and workers' voices, 8 quotations, grouped by region.

UK#

…we know from experience that rapid technological change only delivers social progress when workers and unions are empowered.

Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, United Kingdom. Speech at 'The Past We Inherit, The Future We Build', an event on AI and the North East, Northumberland, February 2026. tuc.org.uk. He argued that the benefits of AI depend on workers having collective bargaining power over its introduction.

North America#

We're at the most important fork in the road our economy has faced in a hundred years. There is no worker and no industry this does not touch, and every job is now a technology job.

Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO, United States. AFL-CIO statement on her inclusion in the TIME100 AI list, 27 August 2026. aflcio.org. She argued that AI reaches every occupation and that this makes the moment decisive for workers.

The evidence is clear: Californians are sick and tired of Big Tech's complete disregard for the impact of AI on safety, jobs, and our communities.

Peter Finn, International Vice President (Western Region), International Brotherhood of Teamsters, United States. Teamsters statement endorsing California Assembly Bill 33 on autonomous vehicles, 18 March 2025. teamster.org. He argued for state regulation of autonomous vehicles on grounds of road safety and driving jobs.

Africa#

When Remotasks shut down, it took our livelihoods out of our hands – the food out of our kitchens.

Joan Kinyua, Member of the steering committee of Remotasks Kenyan workers, Kenya. Statement issued with the Kenyan tech workers' open letter during President Ruto's US visit, 22 May 2024. Foxglove. She described the effect on Kenyan AI data workers when the data-labelling platform they worked for withdrew from the country.

Our work involves watching murder and beheadings, child abuse and rape, pornography and bestiality, often for more than 8 hours a day. Many of us do this work for less than $2 per hour.

Open letter from 97 Kenyan data labellers, content moderators and AI workers, Data labellers, content moderators and AI workers in Nairobi, Kenya. Open letter to President Joe Biden, published during President William Ruto's state visit to Washington, 22 May 2024. Foxglove. Workers who label data and moderate content for US technology companies described their conditions and asked the US government to act.

Asia#

Move fast, break things is now move fast, break things, break people, break the environment.

Anita Gurumurthy, Executive Director, IT for Change, India. Counter Power podcast, episode 'Resisting Big Tech Empires', hosted by Nick Dearden, June 2026. itforchange.net. She argued that the costs of the technology industry's growth model now fall on people and on the environment.

International#

The future of work will not be determined by technology alone, but by the policies, institutions and social dialogue that guide it.

Gilbert F. Houngbo, Director-General of the International Labour Organization, International. Opening address to the 114th International Labour Conference, Geneva, 2 June 2026. ilo.org. Opening the annual labour conference, he argued that the employment effects of AI depend on policy choices rather than on the technology itself.

Workers around the world are anxious about what AI means for them. They are worried about displacement and job loss. To address this anxiety, they must be included in the process.

Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union, International. Panel 'Thinking Through Augmentation' at the World Economic Forum, Davos, 18 January 2024. uniglobalunion.org. She argued that the introduction of AI at work should be negotiated with workers rather than imposed on them.

The decision-rights question, from the other side#

The union question is the decision-rights question asked from below. Who decides which tasks go to the machine, who was consulted, and who carries the cost when the decision is wrong. Hoffman's proposal at Davos in 2024, that productivity gains be negotiated into shorter hours rather than layoffs, is a decision about what the organisation does with the handover, and one that the business slice of this register never mentions. The Kenyan letter is the other half of the same question: the work that makes the machine look autonomous is done by people, and they were not in the room either.

The decision that stays with you#

An organisation that decides which decisions a machine may make, who can stop each one, what its people must remain able to do without the machine, and how anyone would know if it went wrong, has answered the union's question before it is asked. That is the argument of Rules Before Tools, and the measurable risk sits there, in the handover of decisions to machines and what happens to human judgement afterwards. The page on what to tell employees about AI and headcount says how to say so.

What these quotations do not show#

Eight voices is a small slice, American, British and international rather than global: no union from Asia's, Latin America's or continental Europe's labour movements is here yet, and Sean O'Brien of the Teamsters has no verified AI quotation of his own, so the union speaks here through a regional vice-president. The Kenyan letter is a collective document signed by 97 people, not one person's words. Nothing here measures what any union has won.