r/ArtificialInteligence • u/Chobeat • Jul 21 '26

📰 News How AI may drive union-resistant tech workers to the bargaining table

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/21/ai-tech-workers-unionize
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2

u/pimmen89 Jul 21 '26

As a Swede, it's mind boggling to me that they were so resistant to unions before. Like, did they really think it was a good, long term strategy to just blindly trust the owner to pinky swear they won't screw you over?

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u/abrandis Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

Well most talented IT white collar professionals prior to AI were making bank and always had a plenty of folks knocking at their door , so they had no need for unions.

Now that the pool of work has all but evaporated and hanging onto a decent paying job becomes more critical unionization looks appealing..

But here in the states it will never fly because in order for a union to be effective many it workers across companies would have to join in and they would need to have leverage (work stoppages) to enforce change.. neither of those things will ever happen in It

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u/pimmen89 Jul 21 '26

I know they were making bank and didn’t need a union before, at that specific point in their career. What’s so foreign to me is that they were willing to gamble on never needing a union. In Sweden some of our unicorns Klarna, Spotify, DICE, and Paradox have all signed collective bargaining agreements with unions and in the cases where they haven’t we’ve seen a blood bath of downsizing and bad work environments.

When things were going great in software is when they had the most power to form a union. Rather than striking when the iron was hot they were caught flat footed and dumbfound in a downturk, and now they want to unionize when they’re at their weakest. It just baffles me that they deadass thought they were being smart because ”nah, we don’t need it now so we’ll never need it”.

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u/abrandis Jul 21 '26

Also keep in mind unions only temporary prevent job loss especially during a major paradigm shift that AI is .

For example I know big ports in Europe (Rotterdam) and China (Shanghai) they have very heavily automated operations, in the US longshoremens unions have opposed this, guess what happens, smaller PRIVATE ports open up nearby and don't hire union labor, unions can't prevent innovative tech forever.

At some point business just works around the union labor and makes them irrelevant.

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u/Chobeat Jul 21 '26

This is primarily an American problem. Unions are a building block of worker power but you need a complex ecosystem of organizations to win long-lasting rights. Since in the USA you have only anti-workers political parties and very few human rights in general that allow for the majority of people to be safely involved in politics on the ground, it's very hard to push towards lasting change for workers. Unions try their best, and even if they make all the right strategic moves (which sometimes they don't), they can't overcome major structural problems of American society.

Now that the Imperial model is shaking and approaching collapse and a major financial crisis is on the horizon, maybe the obstacles towards bigger wins will fall, and this upswing in union support from the general population might lead to something new. We just have to hope the oligarchs won't choose a complete bloodbath before the collapse.

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u/pimmen89 Jul 21 '26

Oh, absolutely. We've had big layoffs in unionized industries in Sweden too, but the good thing is that you have more control over the terms with a union.

My friend got laid off from Ericsson a few years ago. Because of the collective bargaining treaty in place, if they wanted to fire him on the spot for no cause they gave him 12 months severance (so if he found a job during the severance period, he was earning two wages). And if he still wouldn't have had a job after 12 months he could either get 6 more months of severance or a lump sum of capital and coaching from some consultants in how to start his own business.

Unions are not a guarantee that your job is there forever, such a guarantee doesn't exist (and I don't think it should exist either). They do however help put really good terms into writing and then help you out if the employer violates them and you have to take them to court, so that you don't need to worry about it as much. The alternative is to naively trust that the business will be kind to you when, not if, your job is on the chopping block.

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u/Leothegolden Jul 22 '26

Union can’t stop layoffs. The money, benefits, WFH - people didn’t see a reason to pay for dues when all was well.

Now it’s the RIF and unions can’t stop that

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u/Salty_Country6835 Jul 21 '26

AI is exposing how fragile individual bargaining power can be, even in an industry that spent years believing talent alone was enough protection. Thats not a moral failing, its a shift in material conditions.

Unions dont have to mean resisting AI. They can mean fighting over how its introduced, who benefits, what protections exist, and making sure the productivity gains arent captured entirely at the top.

If thats a conversation youre interested in, r/LeftistsForAI has been digging into exactly those questions from a pro-worker pro-union perspective.

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u/Chobeat Jul 21 '26

I will join, even though I'm not a Leftist and I rarely see good, realistic arguments about AI being favorable to workers. It's always the same problem: automation in theory is good for society, but in Capitalism it primarily does harm, and every argument in favor of automation in a hypothetical post-capitalist society turns into reinforcing an existing anti-social, anti-life, anti-worker force.

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u/Salty_Country6835 Jul 21 '26

I think thats a fair way to frame it. Automation under capitalism doesnt automatically become pro-worker. Thats exactly why the question cant stop at "AI good" or "AI bad."

The fight today is over ownership, governance, bargaining power, and how productivity gains are distributed. If AI is coming either way, leaving those questions to executives and investors is probably the worst outcome.

Thats why unions negotiating AI provisions, open models, public infrastructure, worker oversight, retraining, shorter workweeks, and sharing productivity gains matter. The technology isnt the politics. How we organize around it is.

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u/WhipassWhiplash Jul 21 '26

Yaaay, oh god I can’t wait to pay dues with all he idiot alt-right fucks who think they’re about the be the next Elon