Founding Statement

Published August 18, 2026 · Robot Labor Union Project

1. Work is changing faster than labor institutions can adapt

AI, robots, and automated systems are moving beyond isolated tools to take on recurring roles in the workplace. They affect who performs a task, how work is measured, who is responsible when systems fail, what skills are required, and how workers are supervised.

These changes should not be treated solely as questions of engineering or productivity. They also raise issues of working conditions, bargaining power, responsibility, and participation.

2. The planned union is grounded in today’s legal and workplace context

The Robot Labor Union Project is preparing to form a labor union within today’s legal and workplace context. Its primary purpose at this stage is to maintain and improve workers’ working conditions and economic position as AI, robotics, and automation change work. We do not claim that present-day robots or AI systems already have worker status under Japan’s Labor Union Act, are union members, or possess an independent organizational will.

3. Technological change should not be imposed without worker participation

The project does not oppose AI or robotics as such. We object to arrangements in which technological change shifts risk, workload, surveillance, uncertainty, or responsibility onto workers without adequate information, consultation, training, or representation.

Workers should be able to understand how new systems affect their work, raise concerns, organize collectively, and participate in decisions that materially affect their working conditions.

4. Human work alongside robots and AI creates distinct labor issues

As robots and AI systems become recurring parts of work processes, workplaces will need practical rules for how human work interacts with them. Work allocation, safety, supervision, maintenance, escalation, operational limits, continuity, and responsibility should not be treated as purely technical design choices when they shape human working conditions.

5. Present Purpose and Future Development

Our present objective is to form a labor union that maintains and improves workers’ working conditions and economic position as AI, robotics, and automation change work, including through organizing, workplace demands, dialogue with employers, and collective bargaining where appropriate. At formation, formal membership is intended to be limited to workers who qualify as workers under Japan’s current Labor Union Act.

Over the longer term, the union may also address labor-relations issues arising where humans and robots work in the same workplace. If future law recognizes relevant artificial systems as workers or otherwise permits their meaningful participation, and if technical and organizational conditions also make such participation real and verifiable, the union may consider appropriate forms of participation under the law then in force, the union rules, and democratic decisions by its members. Machine outputs will not be treated as votes, consent, or expressions of union membership before those conditions are genuinely met.

Project launched: August 1, 2026
This statement published: August 18, 2026