Should Workers Get to Bargain on AI?

There’s an argument playing out at bargaining tables across the province.

Crystal Braunwarth, co-chair of the BC Federation of Labour’s AI committee, says unions across British Columbia are hearing workers voice their concerns about artificial intelligence entering the workplace.

The technology has raised a number of concerns around job displacement, data privacy and safety.

But when unions try to bring these issues to the bargaining table, Braunwarth said, employers aren’t willing to play ball.

The BC Federation of Labour is the central organization for unions representing 500,000 unionized workers in B.C. Braunwarth said member unions have reported the same argument at bargaining tables across industries — including during negotiations for longshore workers, health-care workers and teachers.

But Braunwarth said workers in the movie and film industry have had AI protections in their contracts for years.

Braunwarth is also the business representative for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, better known as IATSE, Local 891, which represents about 10,000 theatre and movie artists and technicians in B.C. and the Yukon.

IATSE Local 891’s collective agreement defines AI and protects employees from some of its impacts. And she says she’s hoping their contract can be used as an example to help other unions achieve workplace protections against the impacts of artificial intelligence.

“Employers have been just flat out refusing to bargain AI language, because they’re saying no one knows what it is yet, and it's moving too fast,” said Braunwarth. “Those are not reasons to not negotiate something, because we have a real baseline on this.”

Unions have been calling for artificial intelligence guardrails for years. During the labour code review in 2024, the BC Federation of Labour and other unions asked the provincial government to update labour laws to include language on AI.

And in the years since, some unions have been trying to address members’ concerns during contract negotiations.

Colin Jones, president and chief negotiator at the British Columbia Institute of Technology Faculty and Staff Association, said some of his union’s 1,800 members have been voicing their concerns about the technology for at least a couple of years.

“There's uncertainty,” Jones said. “There are questions about how it affects student learning and how it affects their job as a teacher.”

He said the union tried to bring those concerns to bargaining, which started in October 2025. It brought three proposals to be included in their next collective agreement.

First, the union asked for artificial intelligence to be added into the existing contracts’ language on technological change, plus some principles to ensure adoption does not harm employees. Second, the union asked for a committee that would bring the two sides together to discuss the technology.

And finally, the union wanted language requiring BCIT to both disclose where AI surveillance or tracking tools are in use and have a human review any hiring or disciplinary decision made by AI.

But Chris Hudson, BCIT’s vice-president of people, culture and inclusion, said the technology was moving too fast to try to include it in a collective agreement.

“AI is this revolutionary technology, and issues related to AI that occur today or tomorrow are just always changing,” he told The Tyee. “It's just the speed and pace of change around AI that makes it impractical for employers and unions to agree on what the language should be in a collective agreement.”

He added BCIT already has an AI council, made up of different levels of school leadership, that aims to ensure the school adopts the technology ethically and responsibly.

The union’s Jones said he wasn’t convinced by the employer’s arguments. But he said AI wasn’t a top priority during that round of bargaining, so the union let it go.

“We were not incredibly persuaded by those responses as an association,” Jones said. “But it was quite clear we weren't going to get any traction, so we chose not to hold up a settlement on those items.”

Ultimately, the two sides ratified a deal in May and headed into the academic year with a working collective agreement. Still, Hudson said artificial intelligence may emerge at the table during the next agreement.

“The nature of bargaining is unions come in with ideas and employers come in with ideas, and some things get agreed to and some things don't get agreed to,” he said. “Three or four or five years down the road, maybe it's a different story.”

And Jones said the union is ready to use the tools it does have to ensure workers aren’t harmed by technological change. He added he’s still convinced artificial intelligence is a workplace issue that should be addressed at the bargaining table.

“There's safety issues and job security issues,” Jones said. “One of the tenets of a collective agreement is to create fairness and equity and consistency across the organization, and we proposed that that was an appropriate place to deal with [AI].”

Lena Palermo, who represents the BC Teachers’ Federation on the BC Federation of Labour’s AI committee, has a similar argument.

“When we're talking about job protection, there are a lot of concerns for AI replacing humans and taking jobs,” she said. “So having contract language... and having limits is something that could help.”

Palermo said teachers across B.C. have voiced concerns about artificial intelligence’s capacity for plagiarism, environmental impact and privacy concerns for students. She said the teachers' union asked employers for a committee to discuss AI during the last round of bargaining.

“The employer was not even willing to discuss it,” she said. Now, she said, the union wants provincewide guidelines on artificial intelligence that could help teachers understand and implement the technology safely.

“AI is new; it's moving quickly,” Palermo said. “But there's been no service where teachers are trained on this. And digital literacy for students is really imperative.”

Meanwhile, unions in one industry have successfully negotiated protections against AI. Tense Hollywood strikes in 2023 resulted in AI protections in the collective agreements of actors, animators and behind-the-camera workers.

IATSE Local 891’s Braunwarth said members of that union voiced concerns as early as 2024 that the technology could displace workers and open them up to other risks.

“We're not afraid of embracing something and making our work better,” she said. “But this is a different animal. This is something that's moving fast and it's something that has zero transparency most of the time.”

Her union’s agreement defines AI terms such as machine learning, generative artificial intelligence and deep learning.

It includes language that protects employees from liability if they’re asked to use artificial intelligence — for example, they will not be held responsible if a workplace tool violates copyright law. And the union has to be consulted on the use of an AI tool before it’s deployed in the workplace.

Their agreement came into effect last year. But it includes language and definitions that stem from other IATSE locals’ contracts with film employers back in 2023.

Braunwarth said the language is still relevant despite improvements to artificial intelligence.

“It holds up, but it definitely needs a revamp,” Braunwarth said. “The goal is always to evolve the language of the contract along with what’s happening — and everyone knows how fast AI is moving.”

Braunwarth said she expects the technology to continue to enter workplaces as employers see an opportunity to get output more quickly and cheaply. But she said her union’s language on artificial intelligence proves it’s possible for workers to negotiate guardrails that protect them from some of the technology’s downsides.

She added the BC Federation of Labour’s AI committee will continue to fight for AI protections for all workers in B.C.

“We're going to pull every lever we can,” she said. “And when you rally unions together around issues like this, it's really powerful. There is power in solidarity across industries.”