{"id":209903,"date":"2026-02-04T08:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/union-leaders-support-for-newsom-hinges-on-ai-stance\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T08:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T13:25:08","slug":"union-leaders-support-for-newsom-hinges-on-ai-stance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/union-leaders-support-for-newsom-hinges-on-ai-stance\/","title":{"rendered":"Union leaders’ support for Newsom hinges on AI stance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Union leaders’ support for Newsom hinges on AI stance<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/calmatters.org\/commentary\/2026\/02\/union-leaders-newsom-support-ai\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-02-04 08:01:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: calmatters.org<\/a><\/p>\n

By Dan Walters, CalMatters<\/p>\n

This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

National labor union leaders, and those from California and early presidential primary states, are gathering in Sacramento this week to bluntly warn Gavin Newsom that union support for his 2028 presidential campaign hinges on protecting jobs from artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

The event, organized by the California Federation of Labor Unions, calls AI \u201cthe biggest existential threat facing working Americans today.\u201d The group wants Newsom “or any candidate looking forward to the 2028 election\u201d to know \u201cloud and clear\u201d that \u201cour members want a leader who works with organized labor to protect jobs and create guardrails on artificial intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event evidently singles out Newsom due to his frontrunner status in very early pre-campaign polling, as well as the leading role California\u2019s high tech industry plays in developing AI and Newsom\u2019s somewhat ambivalent attitude toward AI\u2019s potential effects.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThe proliferation of artificial intelligence in recent years has been nothing short of explosive,\u201d a background paper for the event declares. \u201cEmployers have latched on to AI for everything: from using it to monitor and surveil workers to setting workers\u2019 wages to outright replacement of workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtificial intelligence is a multi-billion-dollar industry that continues to proceed unchecked, without common sense guardrails in place, leaving workers\u2019 livelihoods ruined and even lost in its wake.\u201d<\/p>\n

The briefing paper pointedly cites Newsom\u2019s veto of last year\u2019s Senate Bill 7, a union-backed bill to bar employers from using AI to make employee discipline and termination decisions. In rejecting it, Newsom said the measure was \u201coverly broad\u201d and would prevent even innocuous uses of AI.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s veto exemplifies his efforts, as the AI industry explodes, to satisfy both the tech industry, with which he has…<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Union leaders’ support for Newsom hinges on AI stance https:\/\/calmatters.org\/commentary\/2026\/02\/union-leaders-newsom-support-ai\/ Publish Date: 2026-02-04 08:01:00 Source…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/calmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/080725-Newsom-AI-SF-GETTY-CM-01.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209905,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209903\/revisions\/209905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}