AFL-CIO

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, formed by merger in 1955, is the umbrella federation of American organized labor: roughly 60 affiliated unions representing nearly 15 million workers. Under president Liz Shuler it has made artificial intelligence a defining battleground — pursuing a twin-track strategy of confrontation in Washington and engagement in Redmond.

Partnership and pressure

In December 2023 the AFL-CIO and Microsoft announced the first formal partnership between a labor federation and a technology company focused on AI: Microsoft agreed to share information on AI trends with labor leaders, incorporate worker perspectives into AI development, respect workers’ right to organize under a neutrality framework, and jointly shape workforce policy. Shuler cast it as getting workers “in the lab” rather than leaving Silicon Valley to impose its will. Critics within labor questioned whether a seat at Microsoft’s table would translate into power over deployment decisions.

The preemption fight

The federation’s harder edge showed in 2025, when Congress repeatedly tried to preempt state AI regulation. The AFL-CIO campaigned against the proposed ten-year moratorium on state AI laws in the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which the Senate stripped out by a 99–1 vote in July 2025, then mobilized again that November when preemption language resurfaced in the NDAA — warning in letters to both chambers that employers were using workplace AI for “dangerous experimentation, slashing jobs and undermining workers’ rights.” It has likewise opposed unaccountable government deployment of AI and backed affiliates, from SAG-AFTRA to the Writers Guild of America, that bargained the first AI contract protections.