Teamsters aren’t afraid of a fight. With the AI revolution upon us, now is the time for workers to make our voices heard against Big Tech and greedy corporations that want to replace us with robots.

Teamsters do not oppose new technology that enhances work, makes work safer, or creates new jobs in the supply chain. But we are prepared to fight with full force against corruptible employers that want to use new technology, like autonomous vehicles, to eliminate labor and increase their profits at the expense of our livelihoods.

The fight facing us is a big one. Corporations are pouring billions into a plan to outsource good middle-class jobs to machines run by AI. Their goal is simple but disturbing. Big Tech wants to dispatch AI machines to destroy jobs at the behest of big businesses — in this country and across the globe.

When we hear “outsourcing,” we tend to think of jobs being sent overseas, or domestic outsourcing where work is shifted to other parts of the country or to independent contractors that undercut wages and benefits. But the reality is the most dangerous outsourcing is happening every day under the guise of “technological innovation” where working people are replaced by AI and automation. 

Working people cannot afford to leave the decision over how AI is implemented to the CEOs of big corporations dead set on ripping us off. 

In their book, Power and Progress, 2024 Nobel Prize-winning MIT economists Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson show workers share in the gains in productivity of new technology only when society makes specific choices around the direction of how advancements are implemented. 

Throughout the digital transformation of the last 40 years, the implementation of new technologies was left in the hands of major corporations without proper checks and balances. What followed was a profit-motivated focus on automation and the elimination of jobs, reversing the shared prosperity felt by working people in the post-World War II era. Workers have suffered huge increases in income inequality where extreme wealth has been concentrated in the hands of the billionaire class.

The direction new technology takes is within our control. Shared prosperity for workers comes when unions, community leaders, the legislature, and everyday Americans move the tide in that direction by demanding a broader complementary application of technology, as opposed to automation that simply guts our work.

Working people need to harness our power and choose for ourselves how AI is deployed in our communities. We need to demand elected officials enact legislation that ensures responsible guardrails are placed on AI. Working people need to see the benefits of emerging technology while also limiting its potentially disastrous consequences.

Technology that enhances and supplements our work can be positive. But technology like autonomous vehicles that completely decimate good-paying careers is a direct attack on all of us. This is precisely why the Teamsters are leading the charge to protect middle-class jobs and the economic security of our communities. Our kids’ future depends on winning this fight.