Technology and Work
The UC Berkeley Labor Center’s Technology and Work Program provides worker organizations and policymakers with the research, policy analysis, and training they need in order to respond to rapid technological change in the workplace and ensure that AI and other digital technologies benefit rather than harm workers. We focus on low-wage industries and the workers of color, women, and immigrants who are often on the frontlines of experimentation with emerging technologies.
Our program maintains several frequently used resources:
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The Current Landscape of Tech and Work Policy: A Guide to Key Concepts |
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Electronic Monitoring and Automated Decision Systems: Frequently Asked Questions |
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Negotiating Tech: An Inventory of U.S. Union Contract Provisions for the Digital Age |
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Data and Algorithms at Work: The Case for Worker Technology Rights |
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Videos and lessons from our January 2025 conference, Making Tech Work for Workers (use your scroll button for the interactive page). |
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Recent Publications
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Article
November 3, 2025
Evaluating Trends and Challenges in State Regulation of Workplace Technologies
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Tool/Resource
September 18, 2025
A First Look at Labor’s AI Values: An analysis of recent statements about technology by unions and other worker organizations
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Report
July 22, 2025
Negotiating Tech: An Inventory of U.S. Union Contract Provisions for the Digital Age
Research & Publications
The Current Landscape of Tech and Work Policy in the U.S.: A Guide to Key Laws, Bills, and Concepts
Updated December 2025. An overview of current U.S. public policy that regulates employers’ use of digital workplace technologies.
Roundups of Research and Policy Updates on Tech and Work
Our program regularly compiles policy and research updates related to technology and work. See below. New material will be added every few months.
An Alternative Vision for the Future of Tech and Work: A First Look at Labor’s AI Values
Op-ed by Kung Feng and Mishal Khan argues that in debates about how AI could impact workers in the years to come, it is essential to pay attention to the wide range of concerns that worker organizations have about technology adoption, as well as the alternative vision they are putting forth.
Evaluating Trends and Challenges in State Regulation of Workplace Technologies
AI in the workplace isn’t just automation. Workers report discrimination, intensified workloads, and even automated firing. New state policies aim to center workers, write Mishal Khan and Annette Bernhardt in this Tech Policy Press article.
A First Look at Labor’s AI Values: An analysis of recent statements about technology by unions and other worker organizations
A first look at labor’s vision of what the future of AI and digital technologies should look like.
Comments prepared for the July 24, 2025, public hearing of the California Privacy Protection Agency
It is our assessment that the current proposed regulations do not provide the protections that consumers and workers deserve under the CCPA and that the law itself clearly intended.
Negotiating Tech: An Inventory of U.S. Union Contract Provisions for the Digital Age
A searchable inventory of contract provisions from over 175 union agreements showing how collective bargaining has been used to address workplace technologies, protect worker rights, and shape technology adoption, use, and oversight.
Joint Letter to the California Privacy Protection Agency Commenting on Proposed Regulations
Joint letter in response to the California Privacy Protection Agency’s May 9, 2025, request for comments on the most recent draft of proposed regulations for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Electronic Monitoring and Automated Decision Systems: Frequently Asked Questions
Accessible, non-technical FAQ answering common questions about AI and other digital technologies in the workplace, how employers use them, and how workers are impacted.
Joint Comment Letter on Proposed Regulations for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
Joint letter providing recommendations in response to the California Privacy Protection Agency’s request for comments on proposed regulations for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Your Work, Your Data: A Toolkit for Exercising Worker Data Rights Under the California Consumer Privacy Act
Workers at large businesses in California have basic rights around their worker data under the California Consumer Privacy Act, a groundbreaking data privacy law. Because of its potential value for workers and worker advocates, we explain in this toolkit the process for workers to access their data.
The Recent CFPB Guidance on Worker Surveillance
This post explains the the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s new guidelines that employers must follow when they use algorithmic scores or background reports generated by third parties to make employment decisions.
AI in the Workplace: Ensuring New Technologies Work for Workers
Prepared Testimony by Dr. Annette Bernhardt, Director, Technology and Work Program, UC Berkeley Labor Center for the Joint Informational Hearing, California State Assembly, Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection and Committee on Labor and Employment. August 7, 2024, Sacramento, CA.
Joint Letter to the California Privacy Protection Agency on Worker Protections under the CCPA
Joint letter providing input on the California Privacy Protection Agency’s current rulemaking for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which will detail a set of important worker rights and employer responsibilities for the use of data-driven technologies in the workplace.
Press Highlights
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Article
November 10, 2025
An Alternative Vision for the Future of Tech and Work: A First Look at Labor’s AI Values
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Press
January 5, 2026
Can the Fight Against AI Revitalize the US Labor Movement?
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Press
October 20, 2025
Statehouse AI Job-Loss Solutions Range From Punitive to Positive
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Press
June 26, 2025
In The Age Of ChatGPT, Workers Want A Say On AI In The Workplace
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Press
May 14, 2025
California Workers—What You Need to Know About Your Data Rights
Press Coverage
Newsom issues executive order aimed at preparing California for AI workplace disruption, but critics say protections fall short
“We have a whole database at the University of California, Berkeley Labor Center of every single contract we bargained on this issue, and it does show success. We know we’ve saved jobs,” Lorena Gonzales said.
California Labor President Lorena Gonzalez Responds to Governor’s AI Executive Order
The Governor’s executive order calls for state agencies to identify how the collective bargaining process has produced positive outcomes for workers. The UC Berkeley Labor Center has developed a comprehensive database of provisions from over 175 collective bargaining agreements, drawn from a review of over 500 contracts, with protections on AI and tech in the workplace negotiated and won by labor unions.
Increasingly, the next labor negotiation isn’t about wages. It’s about who controls the bots
Research from the UC Berkeley Labor Center inventory of union contracts shows that collective bargaining is already being used as a tool to give workers a voice over how automated management systems improve jobs rather than degrade them
Why A Liberal Arts Education Will Soon Be More Valuable Than Ever
A 2018 study from UC Berkeley Labor Center concerning the prospective automation of truck driving pointed out that a driver’s job is only partially about keeping a vehicle moving ahead between two white lines. If that were all there is to it, lorries would already be empty of humans. In reality, close ethnographic observation showed that truck drivers don’t just navigate the roads, but in fact act as complex problem-solvers in haphazard physical environments.
San Jose workers want safeguards from AI
“Having the union and workers at the table to even have this discussion is absolutely critical, if there’s a chance that we can ensure that the technology is benefiting society as a whole,” said Lisa Kresge, of discussions of worker safeguards around burgeoning AI technology.
Tech and Work Industry Studies
- January 10, 2023 Technology in the public sector and the future of government work
- September 28, 2022 Technological change in five industries: Threats to jobs, wages, and working conditions
- December 9, 2020 Delivering Insecurity: E-commerce and the Future of Work in Food Retail
- September 3, 2020 Change and Uncertainty, Not Apocalypse: Technological Change and Store-Based Retail
- June 23, 2020 Technological Change in Health Care Delivery
- October 22, 2019 The Future of Warehouse Work: Technological Change in the U.S. Logistics Industry
- September 4, 2018 Driverless? Autonomous Trucks and the Future of the American Trucker
Program Contacts
Annette Bernhardt
Director, Technology and Work Program
Mishal Khan
Senior Researcher
Lisa Kresge
Senior Researcher
Kung Feng
Senior Researcher


