Posts tagged automation
Op-ed: The Bad Teamsters Bargain With UPS
October 30, 2025 // Businesses that lose money and are uncompetitive won’t survive. See trucking company Yellow Corp., which filed for bankruptcy in 2023 in part owing to Mr. O’Brien’s labor militancy. Mr. O’Brien refused concessions and tweeted an image of a tombstone “Yellow: 1924-2023.” UPS doesn’t want to be Mr. O’Brien’s next victim. The Teamsters boss has insisted that its contract requires UPS to create 30,000 jobs. He hasn’t read the fine print—or is misleading his members. UPS merely committed to giving part-time employees a chance to apply for some full-time job openings. If UPS reduces job openings, workers don’t have an opportunity to fill them.
Amazon Plans to Replace More Than Half a Million Jobs With Robots
October 21, 2025 // Amazon also said that it’s not insisting executives avoid certain terms, and that community involvement is unrelated to automation. Amazon’s plans could have profound impact on blue-collar jobs throughout the country and serve as a model for other companies like Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, and UPS. The company transformed the U.S. work force as it created a booming demand for warehousing and delivery jobs. But now, as it leads the way for automation, those roles could become more technical, higher paid and more scarce.
Horseshoe casino dealers prepare to strike for right to unionize
October 17, 2025 // The workers, flanked by organizers from Teamsters Local 135, said they have been turned down on an alternate third-party observer, which would have permitted the Oct. 17 election to go forward without delay. “We’ve already had a vote,” said Zachary Holbrook, a dealer/supervisor. “92% of the majority voted for strike authorization.”
Major federation of unions calls for ‘worker-centered AI’ future
October 15, 2025 // The AFL-CIO represents the UAW and dozens of other unions and wants more collective bargaining and state bills regulating AI.
Testimony: Rachel Greszler: Labor Law Reform Part 1: Diagnosing the Issues, Exploring Current Proposals
October 10, 2025 // SummaryToday’s challenges—from the rise of artificial intelligence to the expansion of independent work and the growing demand for flexibility, autonomy, and new skills—necessitate modernized labor laws that are pro-worker and pro-employer, regardless of the type of workplace. Heavy-handed government interventions and attempts to bring back the 1950s’ ways of work are not the answers. American labor laws should preserve the freedom, dignity, and opportunity that make American work exceptional.
AI Needs Data Centers—and People to Build Them
October 6, 2025 // That brings us to the second tool for expanding the skilled workforce: convincing more people to pursue a career in the trades. Here, policymakers should tap into the vast potential workforce among young men released from prison for nonviolent offenses by expanding inmates’ access to vocational education. Only a small fraction of this group currently receives such training. And to train more would-be tradesmen in general, we need to make training more effective—and more interesting. Technology can help here, too. Leading construction-equipment makers already use virtual reality and augmented-reality systems for their training simulators. Tests show VR training significantly improves users’ training-completion and employment outcomes.
The share of Californians in unions holds steady as nationwide numbers continue decline
August 28, 2025 // The report, which analyzed data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, found that the percentage of Californians covered by a union has hovered between 16% and 18% in the last two decades. In 2024, the most recent year analyzed by researchers, the Golden State’s 2.67 million union-represented workers amounted to 16.3% of its labor force. Unions have only been able to sustain those numbers through consistent new organizing, said Enrique Lopezlira, director of the Low-Wage Work Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and a co-author of the report.
Op-ed: A GOP-Teamsters Alliance Makes No Sense
August 24, 2025 // Republicans getting on board with these ideas aren’t just awkward—they’re incoherent. There’s little evidence that endorsements from Teamsters executives move the needle in general elections, for parties or for candidates. Can Republicans credibly argue that filling the Teamsters’ coffers (and campaign-donation kitty) will result in the sort of political realignment some hope for, or even a lasting political windfall? The only guaranteed outcome is more power for the Teamsters and other unions over U.S. labor relations. If these overtures to the Teamsters backfire, Republicans can’t say they weren’t warned. As one GOP politician running for Missouri attorney general tweeted in 2015, after labor-aligned Republicans derailed state right-to-work legislation, “time for an end to union-backed candidates in GOP.”
Union Reporting Threshold Threatens Worker Transparency
August 3, 2025 // Another issue is the lack of plain language on the LM 2 forms themselves. For example, they categorize money coming into the union as “receipts” — yet to most union members, a receipt is something someone receives after paying for something. The forms should be at a grade 10 reading level and broken down in one line, a simple explanation
US labor unions fight to contain AI disruption
June 5, 2025 // The threat extends beyond manufacturing. The CEO of Anthropic, which created Claude as a competitor to ChatGPT, warned last week that generative AI could eliminate half of all low-skilled white-collar jobs, potentially driving unemployment rates up to 10-20 percent. "The potential displacement of workers and elimination of jobs is a significant concern not just for our members, but for the public in general," said Peter Finn of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, America's largest union.