AFL-CIO President Calls AI 'Single Biggest Threat to Working People of Our Lifetime'
President Liz Shuler, whose federation of unions represents 15 million workers, pushed for guardrails on AI.
WASHINGTON, April 28, 2026 - The head of the AFL-CIO said Tuesday that artificial intelligence threatens worker safety, privacy and job security if left unregulated, and called for immediate legislative guardrails.
Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the national federation of 65 unions representing nearly 15 million workers, said that employers are deploying AI across industries without sufficient oversight.
“It is a right now issue,” she said at the National Press Club here. “It’s something working people are thinking about every single day.”
Shuler tied the warning to workplace safety, noting that 7.5 million workers were injured and 5,070 killed on the job in 2024, and said AI could worsen those risks if left unchecked.
Shuler pointed to monitoring systems that track workers’ movements and penalize “time off task.” In one case, she said, a worker who reported feeling ill was told by an AI system to continue working or risk termination.
The worker died because there wasn’t a human being to deliver “common sense,” she said, warning companies are deploying AI “without our input” and “at great risk.”
AFL-CIO research on many workers feeling ‘scared’
New AFL-CIO research surveying more than 1,200 workers found about half said their employers are already using AI, with many reporting they feel “scared” or uncertain about its impact, Shuler said.
The survey showed broad agreement on safeguards: 95 percent said a human, not a machine, should make decisions on hiring, firing and pay; 92 percent want transparency; and 94 percent said they should be told if AI is monitoring them. Yet only 7 percent said employers have disclosed such monitoring, “a 10-to-1 gap,” she said.
Shuler warned that AI could displace millions of workers, citing a March Goldman Sachs report that found about 7 percent of U.S. workers could be displaced within the next 10 years.
“That’s a group of people the size of Pennsylvania losing their jobs,” she said.
She said the AFL-CIO is advancing a “workers-first AI agenda” to limit surveillance, prevent algorithmic discrimination and require worker input.
‘You aren’t going to …fire us by app’
“You can’t surveil us in the bathroom. You cannot steal our data without our consent. You aren’t going to discriminate against us or fire us by app,” she said.
Shuler emphasized labor is “not anti-technology” but “anti-greed,” arguing AI should “augment” workers rather than replace them.
She also criticized lawmakers for failing to enact protections, saying workers trust unions more than political parties or tech companies.
Recent federal efforts have focused on transparency. The AI-Related Job Impacts Clarity Act, introduced in November 2025 by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and Josh Hawley, R-Missouri., would require the Department of Labor to collect and publish quarterly data on layoffs, hiring and retraining tied to AI-driven automation.
With federal action stalled, the AFL-CIO is pursuing protections through collective bargaining and state-level legislation.
“There is no worker this does not touch,” she said. “Every job is now a technology job.”
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