Initial Labor Program

Published August 18, 2026 · First-phase priorities for the Robot Labor Union Project

This program defines the labor issues the project prioritizes during formation preparation and that the planned union will principally address in its initial human-worker phase. The central purpose is to maintain and improve human workers’ working conditions and economic position as AI, robotics, and automation change work. It is an activity framework, not a substitute for future union rules or a collective agreement.

Priority 1 — Employment, staffing, and job redesign

When AI or robots change staffing needs or job content, workers should receive timely information and have an opportunity to address reassignment, job security, workload, and the distribution of remaining tasks.

Priority 2 — Workload and hidden recovery labor

Automation can remove tasks while also creating new work: checking outputs, correcting errors, handling exceptions, restoring stopped systems, documenting failures, and covering gaps. The project treats this hidden recovery work as a labor-condition issue and intends the planned union to continue doing so after formation.

Priority 3 — Human–robot safety and responsibility

Where humans work near or through automated systems, safe operating rules, stop procedures, escalation paths, maintenance responsibilities, and accountability for errors must be clear and workable for the people affected.

Priority 4 — AI monitoring, evaluation, and management

Workers should be able to understand when AI is used to monitor activity, evaluate performance, allocate shifts, recommend discipline, or otherwise influence employment decisions. The project prioritizes transparency, human review, and procedures for contesting material errors, and intends the planned union to carry those priorities forward.

Priority 5 — Skills, training, and transition

Workers should not bear the cost of technological transition alone. Where new systems materially change required skills or duties, adequate training, transition time, and fair consideration of reassignment should be part of workplace implementation.

Priority 6 — Worker participation in technology deployment

When the introduction of AI or robotics materially changes working conditions, workers should have channels to receive information, raise concerns, propose safeguards, and participate collectively in shaping implementation.

Initial forms of action

After union formation, the union intends to develop practical activities such as member consultation, issue collection, workplace requests, dialogue with employers, collective bargaining where appropriate, public statements, surveys, guidance, and cooperation with relevant labor, technical, and civil-society actors.

Relationship to future robot workers

During the initial phase, protecting and representing human workers is the union’s primary labor purpose. Human–robot work relations and any future participation by artificial workers remain secondary, long-term issues to be considered only if they become legally and technically meaningful, comply with the law and union rules then in force, and preserve the organization’s character as a labor union.

Published: August 18, 2026