AFL-CIO
Labor Federation
America’s largest labor federation — nearly 15 million workers across some 60 unions — fights AI-driven displacement and federal preemption of state AI laws, while cutting a first-of-its-kind partnership with Microsoft to give workers a voice in AI development.
Why this score
How the formula works →- +4.2antiCampaigns against AI
- +1.1anti2 anti-AI statements (forceful)
- ±0nuancedHolds a documented two-sided view
- ±0nuancedSupports AI only with conditions
Weights, statement counts, the ×1.25 multiplier for having a stake in an AI-impacted field, and the formula’s smoothing are already baked in — the points add up to the score (direction-free evidence pulls toward the middle instead): Firmly Anti-AI · 5.3/10
In their words
Without robust guardrails, data-driven technologies, including AI and automated decision systems, are dramatically reshaping work in ways that harm working people. Employers increasingly use workplace AI systems for key functions, powering dangerous experimentation, slashing jobs and undermining workers’ rights.
If we’re going to chart the course for an AI future, it could be done pedal to the metal, slash and burn, no voice, no inclusion, imposing Silicon Valley’s will on the economy without any guardrails, or you could partner together, get workers in the lab and develop technology for a workplace with the input of the people who actually do the work.
This partnership reflects a recognition of the critical role workers play in the development, deployment and regulation of AI and related technologies.
Biography
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.
Quote sources
- Liz Shuler, Fortune, 2026(fortune.com)
- Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO–Microsoft announcement, 2023(news.microsoft.com)
- AFL-CIO letter to the Senate, 2025(aflcio.org)
Sources & further reading
Canonical record: https://battlelines.ai/topic/afl-cio
