AI Workers' Inquiry 2026
14 points by gmem
14 points by gmem
Maybe this will trigger people to unionize. Not likely, but one can hope.
really proud to say work voted to unionise two weeks ago <3 https://prospect.org.uk/news/prospect-welcomes-recognition-agreement-at-skyscanner-technology-ltd
[ i've been involved as a rep in the pre-ballot period and am helping plan our first annual general meeting ]
AI is pushing people towards unions and workers' collectives. In my organization, I would say the rate of new people coming is 10x compared to 2 years ago.
You may get legal protection against refusing AI, but you won’t be protected from getting fired for underperforming relative to your peers who use it effectively.
In many countries in Europe, you can't be fired for being an underperformer. Not sure about the UK where this research is from.
You beat me to it. I was about to post it. This research is gold.
a clear picture of its impacts is emerging
Something I can't find in this is N. How many people were actually involved in these workshops?
we were a working group of London Tech Workers Coalition, and have been conducting workers inquiries based on the Marxist tradition
Hmmm... so not a neutral assessment and also not likely to have been a random sample of tech workers.
labour is entitled to all it creates
Ahh.
Hmmm... so not a neutral assessment and also not likely to have been a random sample of tech workers.
Science is not neutral. It always starts from a specific and partial epistemology and methodology. In this case, the methodology, the Workers' Inquiry, is in the title, so it's not exactly a secret.
While true to some degree, having some notion of the scope of the inquiry (how many people did they ask? what cross-section of the tech industry was involved?) buys a lot of credibility when someone makes a statement like:
The UTAW Tech Workers’ Inquiry outlines how generative AI is changing work across the tech sector
Is it actually across the tech sector or is it what 10 people agreed. I’m very open to the idea of different research methodologies, but broad hard claims without any notion of scope or limitations in the study does not make for good research.
I actually think this could be excellent research if the scope and claims were appropriately narrowed to more accurately reflect what conclusions one can draw from the study.