A tentative three-year agreement between the city of Oakland and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21 has secured AI-related protections for municipal workers. The agreement, which has placed a planned November 5 strike on hold, requires the city to retrain or reassign employees displaced by artificial intelligence rather than terminating them. The decision follows an October 22 vote in which 94.1% of union members authorized a strike to prevent being laid off or disciplined by AI systems.
“Sometimes with a fancy new toy, it actually costs more, it’s more difficult to implement and the results are not as good,” said Julian Ware, an Oakland spatial data administrator and member of the union. The local's push for protections comes as nearly 70% of state and local government agencies report adopting or implementing generative AI, according to an Ernst and Young survey conducted between July and August 2026.
Labor groups across the United States are increasingly seeking explicit guardrails against automation and surveillance technologies, often referred to by researchers as "bossware." These tools can monitor employee location, track productivity, scan biometrics, and use analytics to predict emotions. Some systems are also used to rank workers for hiring, firing, and promotion decisions.
Union leaders argue that policymakers have failed to address the potential impact of these technologies on the workforce. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, stated that unions are using contract negotiations to establish the guardrails that policymakers have failed to implement. Similarly, John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers Union, noted that automation represents an "ultimate threat" to jobs in sectors like transportation.
Other labor organizations have achieved similar victories through collective bargaining. In 2023, the Communications Workers of America secured some AI protections for California workers, and the Transport Workers Union recently won veto power over autonomous vehicle deployment plans from the Central Ohio Transit Authority in 2024. In Pennsylvania, the SEIU Local 668 successfully pushed for a policy ensuring that the state's use of AI includes employee input and supervision without being used for worker discipline.
