As the auto industry rushes to adopt artificial intelligence and advanced automation, executives are signaling their ambitions to Wall Street. What they are not addressing, however, is the human cost. These technologies are being deployed primarily to cut jobs and increase shareholder returns.
As the UAW Constitutional Convention convened last week, it underscored the need to elevate leaders who understand this situation and are prepared to address it.
This future is not written yet. Tech has not fully replaced us, meaning we autoworkers still have a window of opportunity to secure our future. This will be true only if we put as much thought into our job security as corporations put into our job elimination.
We’ve seen this script before. We watched grocery stores roll out self-checkouts, turning customers into unpaid cashiers and erasing frontline jobs. We also saw the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) draw a line in the sand, striking until they secured historic protections against AI exploitation. The auto industry is at that exact crossroads right now.
To prevent the continuation of devastating job losses, our first preference must be honest dialogue and collaboration through collective bargaining with corporations. However, if companies refuse to protect our positions in the workplace, unions must demand corporation-wide secured employment levels. Under this framework, if AI/advanced automation eliminates jobs at one facility, corporations must be contractually obligated to offset those losses with new investments and products at new greenfield U.S. facilities.
Furthermore, we need action beyond the bargaining table. In Washington’s blind race to outpace China, Congress completely ignored the economic repercussions of AI on the American working class. We urgently need federal legislation that protects workers from tech-driven displacement. In this election cycle, we should screen legislators asking for our endorsements on this critical issue.
Until Congress acts on this new technology in a meaningful way, unions must step up and make job security our top priority. Technology should be a tool that elevates workers, not a weapon used to discard them.By Tony Totty
UAW Local 14 President
Toledo, Ohio
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: AI should empower auto workers, not eliminate them | Letter
Reporting by Letter to the editor / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Letter to the editor | USA TODAY Network
