Who’s Got the Power? Restoring Worker Power in the Age of Algorithmic Unionbusting

EPIC and the National Institute for Workers’ Rights’ white paper, Who’s Got the Power? Restoring Worker Power in the Age of Algorithmic Unionbusting, examines how employers increasingly use surveillance technologies, algorithmic management systems, and vast stores of worker data to identify, monitor, and interfere with workers seeking to organize.

The paper explains how modern workplace technologies—including productivity monitoring software, biometric surveillance, AI-powered management tools, and predictive analytics—have transformed traditional anti-union pushback from management and third-party union avoidance consultants into “algorithmic unionbusting,” which is the use of digital surveillance and automated systems to identify, target, and suppress worker organizing. It also examines how existing labor and privacy laws have failed to keep pace with these technologies and recommends federal and state policy reforms to restore worker power.

The report finds that existing labor and privacy laws have failed to keep pace with these technologies, leaving workers with inadequate protections against intrusive surveillance and automated management practices that can chill organizing and undermine workplace rights. 

EPIC and NIWR conclude the white paper by urging lawmakers to prioritize:

• stronger worker data protections,
• meaningful limits on workplace surveillance,
• greater guardrails around automated decision-making systems,
• robust enforcement of labor rights, and
• privacy laws that meaningfully cover workers.