The 2.3 million strong California Federation of Labor Unions declared victory when Governor Gavin Newsom signed a series of groundbreaking bills into law, establishing the strongest AI ‘guardrails’ anywhere in the US.
An effective lobbying and campaigning effort saw off a major corporate lobbying drive to defeat the proposed legislation, backed by millions of dollars in spending.
Lorena Gonzalez, President of the 2.3 million strong California Federation of Labor Unions, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, said: “California’s workers and our unions have changed the national narrative on how Americans can fight back and win against AI taking over our jobs and workplaces.”
Newsom’s signing of the legal safeguards marks an important victory for US unions and a setback for technology companies seeking to limit the regulation of AI. It is also a blow to Donald Trump’s opposition to tighter regulation of big digitech companies in the US, which also saw him pressuring the EU and governments not to introduce legislation to rein in such companies.
New safeguards for workers
Newsom signed bills that ban bosses from using AI to discipline or sack workers without human oversight and corroborating data, rather than allowing decisions to be based solely on automated systems, and modernise the WARN Act (a US federal employment law requiring covered employers to give at least 60 calendar days’ advance written notice before plant closures or workers face massive layoffs) to provide workers with additional information on layoffs caused by AI.
They also: direct California’s Employment Development Department to study the impact of AI on hiring and the workforce; ban the use of AI surveillance in workplace bathrooms; ban employers from using potentially biased and invasive AI surveillance in the workplace to recognise, infer or predict workers’ emotional states or collect their neural data; and require licensed health care professionals to remain the decision-makers in healthcare clinical practice, not AI.
Earlier this year Newsom also signed union-supported legislation taking on Big Tech and regulating AI. This ensures that public school employees and contractors must be people and not AI and obliges businesses to provide human customer service representatives within 15 minutes of a request.
Newsom also signed bills that give the state more tools to combat corporate monopolies that drive down wages, make it harder to unionise and raise prices for consumers and which require advertisers to disclose if a performer is created by AI.
Lessons for the UK
Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO, said: “There is still a long way to go to ensure that working people have a say in how AI technology is developed and implemented in the workplace – both in California and nationwide – but these bills are an essential step forward. When working people stand together, we can take on Big Tech and win.” With AI dangers that once sounded like sci-fi now making news headlines, and more employers using AI to replace workers, Andy Burnham’s government would do well to study developments in California (the spiritual home of Big Tech). He should involve UK unions in ensuring protections if they wish to see the UK as a global leader on AI right across the economy, not just in the digitech sector.
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