B.I.W. Workers Negotiate A.I. Protections in New Contract

The NY Times recently featured Bath Iron Works shipbuilders (IAM S6) in a story about how unions are preparing for the arrival of artificial intelligence in the workplace. Last month, Local S6, which represents nearly 4,500 workers at the shipyard, ratified a new five-year contract that requires the union to be informed at the “conceptual stage,” rather than at implementation, of “any proposed addition or modified technology, equipment or process,” including A.I. and robotics.

“It was the union trying to force the company’s hand about being more transparent when it comes to A.I.,” Local S6 President Tim Suitter told the NY Times. “The sooner we can be part of that conversation and represent the members’ side of it, the better off we are.”

The contract requires the company to have a “good faith” discussion regarding the anticipated impact on the shipbuilders work. Local S6 bargaining committee member Devin Ragnar pushed for the company to include the A.I. language. He told Maine State Labor News that the negotiating committee was concerned of the potential for A.I. and robotics to replace workers as other shipyards have begun to implement these new technologies.

“This reality challenges the idea that people in the construction and manufacturing trades are safe from being replaced by AI because of the environments they work in,” said Ragnar. “With this understanding, we made it a priority to strengthen our language around how the company approaches the implementation of new technology.”

BIW recently introduced a programmable arm known as a “co-bot,” or “collaborative robot,” that can weld. Ragnar argued that this decision did not exactly follow the contract language, so the union filed a grievance and is working with the company to resolve it. He said the new A.I. contract language will help the union get in front of how AI will impact its membership, especially when that impact could cost members their careers.”

Dave Sullivan, General Vice President of IAM’s Eastern Territory, told the NY Times that in the past the company would have simply said, “Hey, we bought this $10 million machine. But in the future, the union would have warning. The Times story noted that BIW’s rival, Huntington Ingalls Industries in Mississippi entered a partnership with Hyundai Heavy Industry last year that resulted in a pilot program to bring A.I.-guided welding equipment to shipyards in Mississippi and Virginia.

“In construction, you hear a lot of ‘You can’t automate this!’” Ragnar told the Times. They think a robot can’t do the work, can’t climb a ship. But, he said “it’s very real — it’s happening.”

At the same time, Sullivan said he is more optimistic about the constructive use of A.I in shipbuilding. If an A.I.-guided machine can weld a seam in 15 seconds — a fraction of the time it takes a human, without the risk of injuries — it could mean more ships under construction and, in turn, more jobs, with a healthier work force.

“Maybe the new technology would be great,” Mr. Sullivan said. “It’s the unknown.”

At the same time, union workers have expressed concerns about how A.I. will be used to monitor and discipline workers. New York labor attorney Joseph Bonomo told the Times that he urges his clients to press for contract provisions that guarantee human review of reports generated by an algorithm.

“I want to be able to say, at the top: ‘If we come back with a contract for ratification and it doesn’t have this, they’re not going to approve it,’” he said. “‘There’s going be a rat outside tomorrow morning, and there’s going be a line of 1,000 people saying that you’re trying to eliminate jobs.’”

He also encourages the Machinists and other unions to leverage A.I. to their advantage by building their own large language models to harness decades of institutional knowledge and records. He believes they can use A.I. to organize more shops.

“Unions have to be in that driver’s seat,” he said.