New Polling: Over 9 in 10 Favor Pro-Worker AI Agenda, Trust Unions More Than Either Party to Deliver

The AFL-CIO released new polling today, showing that more than 90% of working people favor job and privacy protections from artificial intelligence (AI) and overwhelmingly trust unions—over either political party—to deliver them.

The research, including the new polling conducted in collaboration with David Binder Research, focus groups, and surveys from Data for Progress, amount to the most in-depth study of workers’ attitudes toward AI. The polling surveyed working people on the AFL-CIO’s Workers First Initiative on AI, the labor movement’s principles for the development and implementation of AI that ensures workers reap the benefits of the technology. More than 9 in 10 respondents support most of these guardrails, including requirements for training, transparency and accountability.

Key findings include:

• Unions are the most credible messenger on AI for workers. 
  • Polling shows unions are the only institution with net positive trust (+26), and the new survey backs that up .
  • That trust exceeds both political parties and employers as the institution most likely to protect workers from AI harms, including more than four times over Democrats and five times over Republicans among independents.
  • Independents rank unions first and employers second above both parties.
• The AFL-CIO’s Workers First Initiative on AI has a broad consensus among voters.
  • Every worker protection tested in the survey is supported by more than three in four workers. 
  • Transparency, human oversight, and worker voice all test above 72% agreement, with minor partisan gaps of only 3–6 points between Democrats and Republicans—rare in policy testing. 
• Across the political spectrum, workers are concerned about AI as an issue of freedom and privacy—and don’t believe their employers are doing enough.
  • Just 7% of those currently working say their employer has disclosed how or when AI is monitoring their work, while 70% say their employer has not. And 94% say workers should know if AI is being used to monitor their work. This is a 10-to-1 gap in what working people across the country expect and what employers are telling them.
  • Independents view the issue through a privacy lens by 39 points over freedom (+61 vs. +22). Freedom is the lens through which Latino voters (+70 vs. +46), younger voters (+59 vs. +56) and Black voters (+65 vs. +56) see the issue. Union households see both as an issue, effectively tied at +62 vs. +61).

“These results make it clear: our Workers First Initiative on AI is not just a set of principles, but a mandate to deliver,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “The vast majority of America’s workers agree on how to move forward on AI and who they trust to do it, and it’s not Democrats, Republicans, Big Tech, or their employers—it’s the labor movement. We’re at the most important fork in the road our economy has faced in the last 100 years, and workers are united in our power. From now until the 2026 midterms and beyond, we’ll be organizing to protect our rights and fight for a future that is human-made. And every political candidate, whether they are running this upcoming cycle or in 2028, will need to decide whether they’re with workers in this country or with the billionaires and Big Tech.”

A detailed memo outlining the findings from the survey and methodology can be viewed here.