UK Unions Want 'Worker First' Plan For AI as People Fear For Their Jobs (theregister.com)
- Reference: 0178914228
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/28/1156233/uk-unions-want-worker-first-plan-for-ai-as-people-fear-for-their-jobs
- Source link: https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/uk_unions_want_worker_first/
> Over half of the British public are worried about the impact of AI on their jobs, according to employment unions, which want the UK government to [1]adopt a "worker first" strategy rather than simply allowing corporations to ditch employees for algorithms. The Trades Union Congress (TUC), a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, says it found that people are concerned about the way AI is being adopted by businesses and want a say in how the technology is used at their workplace and the wider economy.
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> It warns that without such a "worker-first plan," use of "intelligent" algorithms could lead to even greater social inequality in the country, plus the kind of civil unrest that goes along with that. The TUC says it wants conditions attached to the tens of billions in public money being spent on AI research and development to ensure that workers are supported and retrained rather than deskilled or replaced. It also wants guardrails in place so that workers are protected from "AI harms" at work, rules to ensure workers are involved in deciding how machine learning is used, and for the government to provide support for those who euphemistically "experience job transitions" as a result of AI disruption.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/28/uk_unions_want_worker_first/
Remember Detroit (Score:1)
Once upon a time there was a car industry there. Because those firms were complacent and the unions prevented them from innovating, as well as ensuring the workers were paid too much, the industry was decimated by foreign competition. If you resist the market you will get run over in the long term; that the unions of the UK think they can resist this logic goes to show that the lessons of Detroit have not been learnt.
There clearly is a problem - though the fact that the left spends half its time defending m
Re:Remember Detroit (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually, what killed the UK car industry was the UK government mandating that all cars must be made from UK parts in a futile attempt at protectionism. I bring that up because that is EXACTLY what Trump is doing to the US car industry right now with his tariffs! Trump will go down in history as the idiot who killed US manufacturing. Thanks, Trump!
Re: (Score:2)
UK just as dumb in other ways, remember just recently, British Steel was bought by China, and became Chinese Steel, and UK government took back British Steel? [1]https://www.bbc.com/news/artic... [bbc.com] Everyone dumb, never forget that. China invading EU with their BYD and everyone there loving it.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg17g39x41o
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair, the fact that most British cars were crap didn't help either. Poor reliability, mostly unpleasant to drive, prone to rust.
Re: (Score:2)
Wow - I have so much to say about such a short post:
> Once upon a time there was a car industry there. Because those firms were complacent and the unions prevented them from innovating, as well as ensuring the workers were paid too much, the industry was decimated by foreign competition. If you resist the market you will get run over in the long term; that the unions of the UK think they can resist this logic goes to show that the lessons of Detroit have not been learnt.
How did the unions prevent the firms from innovating? What constitutes "paid too much"? Should they have paid the workers the same amount as was paid to workers in poorer countries who worked much longer weeks for less pay? Shouldn't the executives, owners, and investors then have taken a similar haircut? Why is it that when cheaper goods from shit-hole countries enter the picture, it's only the workers who are expected to lose their jobs? You talk about r
Ah bless... (Score:2)
How do unions stifle innovation? Two stories from the railways in the UK
1) When a train arrives at a station, the doors have to be opened for the passengers to get out. This task has been done by the 'conductor / guard' despite the fact that it would make far more sense for the driver to do it as soon as he has stopped the train. Try and change that and the union goes on strike
2) This past weekend the conductors on one of our rail services went on strike because of the introduction of electronic tickets - i
Re: (Score:2)
History teaches us that we do not learn from history. Those who remember their history are doomed to watch it be repeated.
And if AI can replace or reduce human workers, then that is exactly what will happen. No amount of regulation will prevent it.
If the number of people starving in the street or languishing in prison remains at a sustainable level, then we will just "carry on" like that. Birth rates are continuing to fall so the next generation might not have enough people in it for the unemployment to
Re: (Score:2)
This narrative is completely devoid of evidence backing it up. It's been debunked ad nauseam. Why do you continue to propagate it?
Please debunk away (Score:2)
There was a car industry in Detroit. There is now much less of a car industry. So what did cause this collapse if it wasn't management complacency and union obstructionism?
Re: (Score:2)
The collapse of the near-monopoly that US automakers had on the US market. This was pushed over the cliff by the '74 oil embargo.
A loss of revenue killed the Detroit auto industry, not a lack of profit.
This led to a rapid depopulation of the area since, "the boom had went bust", and factories popping up in the south where it was more economical.
Today, Michigan still has the largest car industry in the country.
[1]20% of all US auto industry is still in the Detroit area. [engaging-data.com]
[1] https://engaging-data.com/auto-manufacturing-state/
Re: (Score:2)
> Once upon a time there was a car industry there. Because those firms were complacent and the unions prevented them from innovating, as well as ensuring the workers were paid too much, the industry was decimated by foreign competition.
That's an oversimplification of what caused Detroit's demise. While union demands were part of the cause, Detroit's underestimating the Japanese and thus failing to work on quality improvements and improving their designs were also causes. The unions got theirs, the execs got theirs, and Detroit slowly died. By the time they realized the Japanese, and Germans to a smaller extent, had surpassed them it was too late and they were playing catchup.
The modern day Luddites (Score:1)
Not without cause - in fact you can be assured that their bosses are already salivating over the potential to cut headcount and boost profits by replacing pesky humans with AI.
But I'm skeptical that we'll be able to simply legislate them out of that. Capitalism and profit are too strong a motive. In the short to medium term helping those workers reskill to work WITH AI and be more productive may be the best we can do.
In the longer term we're probably going to have to move to some kind of UBI...but how to fu
Re: (Score:2)
The question is, have any of these efforts to replace humans with AI actually succeeded, or have they all proved the AI sucks and will cost your company money? According to an MIT report, it is the latter: [1]https://futurism.com/ai-agents... [futurism.com]
[1] https://futurism.com/ai-agents-failing-companies
Re: (Score:2)
Call your bank and ask me that again.
AI replace what? (Score:5, Funny)
I sit around doing nothing all day. How can AI replace that?
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AI can do nothing much, much faster than you can!
Re: AI replace what? (Score:1)
But it can't enjoy it as much ;>)
Friction never stops progress (Score:2)
It only slows it down, and wastes energy in the process.
Maybe that's what they want here. If their goal is to stop progress (in this context, the rush for AI) they will fail, as did all protests and union actions against progress for the last couple of centuries. But I certainly understand the fears that drive this backlash.
Re: Friction never stops progress (Score:2)
A little bit of friction can sometimes be a good thing. At the moment the mentality is to rely on AI as if it was a panacea for everything, and jobs are being lost that shouldn't have gone (there was a /. article about one instance not long ago).
Change is an inevitable, but well managed change takes longer and makes fewer disasters along the way; that's what the Unions are aiming for. Their power in the UK is significant, but not overwhelming enough to stop the march of progress.
Re: (Score:2)
> jobs are being lost that shouldn't have gone
What jobs "shouldn't" have gone?
If a company lays off people in the name of AI that they shouldn't, guess what, they'll have egg on their faces and have to hire them back, kind of like with DOGE. And unlike the government, businesses are a lot quicker to realize they made an error, and make an about-face, because they really don't like losing money.
If a company lays off people in the name of AI, and the company doesn't suffer, then those jobs really weren't needed. Maybe it's because they were wasted effort
If you want social equality (Score:2)
Have AI replace the owners, too. Lots of businesses fail owing to spectacularly bad decision making on the part of the owners. Make a way for AIs to compete with these people, and see what happens when half the businesses are "owned" by entities that don't give a damn about paying 99% income tax.
Re: (Score:2)
That just sounds like some kind of weird technocommunism... replacing state control of the means of production with non-capital decision making processes under state control.
Turns the stock market into more of horse betting than investing in profitability... shit- you may have saved capitalism and communism at the same time.
Sounds a bit luddite (Score:2)
Progress can't be stopped.
Consumer first (Score:2)
It's adorable that a labor union wants to protect jobs. Good job, buddy!
Color me unpersuaded. I want us to take a consumer welfare first approach because that's what's really important. Forcing us to waste resources by keeping people doing something a machine can do better and cheaper makes no long term sense.
If customers decide their welfare is best served by having humans do the work, that's great. If they decide cheap and automated is better, so be it. What a Luddite labor union wants is totally irreleva
We're screwed (Score:2)
Don't worry about jobs.
Elon Musk has promised that after he sells millions of robots to take people's jobs that everyone will have a "Universal High Income" subsidy.
Not quite sure how or why this will be done given that he recently has called for the elimination of Social Security, Food Stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, Education, etc. as part of his Dodgy government job.
This could just be his usual hype lying.
Re: (Score:1)
It's called libertarians have used UBI as a cudgel to support gutting all other social spending programs. It's a spinoff from Friedman who once proposed Negative Income Tax as an alternative. It's a pipe dream because when push comes to shove they will vote for cuts but would they vote for a UBI? Not likely.
Also Republicans stopped caring about economic reality, folks like Rothbard and Friedman no longer hold any intellectual power on the party, that's been abandoned for populism.
Basically talk of UBI fro
Re: (Score:2)
> It's called libertarians have used UBI as a cudgel to support gutting all other social spending programs. It's a spinoff from Friedman who once proposed Negative Income Tax as an alternative. It's a pipe dream because when push comes to shove they will vote for cuts but would they vote for a UBI? Not likely.
> Also Republicans stopped caring about economic reality, folks like Rothbard and Friedman no longer hold any intellectual power on the party, that's been abandoned for populism.
> Basically talk of UBI from the right is a distraction, same as when conservatives talk about nuclear power, it's not a real solution it's a dodge to avoid reality.
It's the same deal as when Reagan shut down the asylums and halfway houses. "We're stopping these wasteful programs and will replace them someday real soon with something much, MUCH better." We're well past forty years later and still nothing has been done about it. It'll be the same here. They'll gut all social services because UBI is just around the corner, and somehow UBI will never, ever actually manifest.
Re: (Score:2)
"Universal High Income"? Smells like communism to me... is Musk a communist? Or just a liar?
Re: (Score:2)
Also could have just been high at the time. Really is no telling with that fucker.