“Profit over people.”, the unofficial slogan of capitalism. The bourgeois class have held this belief close to their hearts since the 16th century. In modern times nothing has changed. Capitalists are still choosing profits over people and they have now expanded to choosing “machines over workers”. In 2025 personal finance and trading education platform, RationalFX, counted 245,000 tech sector layoffs with about 70,000 being tied to AI adoption and automation. In the first six weeks of 2026 there were 30,700 layoffs in the tech sector connected to AI adoption and automation. Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman says,

“White-collar work, where you’re sitting down at a computer, either being a lawyer or an accountant or a project manager or a marketing person — most of those tasks will be fully automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months.”

Companies do not care if workers become unemployed and financially destitute. Andrew Yang, CEO at Noble Mobile and a former United States presidential candidate gave his take on the current issue of AI displacement in the workplace by explaining,

“As one company starts to streamline, all of their competitors will follow suit. It will become a competition because the stock market will reward you if you cut headcount and punish you if you don’t. Millions of workers are about to be given their pink slips.”

As of 2025 3 in 10 companies have admitted that they have already begun replacing workers with AI. They estimate that by the end of 2026 that 37% of workers will be replaced by AI. In a survey 1,000 United States capitalists have admitted to slowing down on hiring workers, 39% have laid off workers in 2025, 35% say they would layoff workers before the end of 2025, and 58% say they will conduct layoffs in 2026. These leeches have shamelessly expressed that employees who lack AI-related skills and entry-level workers face the highest risks for layoffs. These layoffs have been described as, “serial layoffs”, due to the rapid and systematic termination rates in companies.

This is a form of “reactive workforce management” which has led to a drop in morale amongst workers and caused a major loss of critical skills. A report published by the restaurant consulting firm, Aaron Allen & Associates, estimated that 80% of restaurant jobs will become automated. The study results show that 51% of server jobs will be automated. It is estimated that 57% of fast-food and counter workers will be replaced by machines. Some companies that have already started to make these changes are, but not limited to, Chipotle, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, and the Jamaican Patty franchise, Juici Patties.

These blood sucking companies and the financial vampires known as their owners have exploited the minds and bodies of workers for centuries, now they feel as if workers are a burden and outdated. Due to this they have seen it fit to replace us with wires, circuit boards, metal, and plastic. They have once again chosen profits over people by choosing machines over workers. 

            (Gross, Grant. “Push to Replace Workers with AI Faces Backlash — Even from Management.” CIO, 28 Feb. 2026, www.cio.com/article/4138743/push-to-replace-workers-with-ai-faces-backlash-even-from-management.html.)

            (Moody, Kathryn. “Nearly 4 in 10 Companies Will Replace Workers with AI by 2026, Survey Shows.” HR Dive, 22 Sept. 2025, www.hrdive.com/news/companies-will-replace-workers-with-ai-by-2026/760729/.)           

(“80% of Restaurant Jobs Could Be Taken over by Robots.” Adeccogroup.com, 2020, www.adeccogroup.com/our-thinking/articles-and-editorials/80-of-restaurant-jobs-could-be-taken-over-by-robots.)

            (Scinto, Maria. “5 Fast Food Chains That Have Already Started Using AI.” The Takeout, 22 Feb. 2026, www.thetakeout.com/2104709/fast-food-chains-started-using-ai/.)

The post AI Displacement: Replacing Workers With Machines first appeared on Labor Today.

The post AI Displacement: Replacing Workers With Machines appeared first on Labor Today.

First I would like to send solidarity from the class-oriented workers of the US to all the Palestinian and Syrian people throughout the world. My name is Scott and I am the Assistant National Secretary of Labor United Educational League in the United States. We are a movement of rank-and-file workers in the United States aimed and building a class-oriented center within the American trade union movement.

I would like to thank the WFTU, IWI for having this presentation today and I would like to thank the speakers today for a great presentation on the struggles the workers of the world face with the increasing implementation of AI. I would just like to give a quick update on some struggles facing the American working class due to the implementation of AI & automation. In October, the longshoremen on the East & Gulf Coast ports in the US went on strike due to the increased automation through AI instituted in the ports in the US. After 3-days on strike they came to a tentative agreement on wages and agreed to a 90 day extension on their expired Master Contract while they continued to negotiate on automation. Last month, negotiations were cut off and it appears they will be going back on strike January 15 with the goal of preventing automation on their ports.

Also, two years ago railroad workers in the US were blocked by the Biden regime from striking due to the Draconian Railway Labor Act signed into law here in 1926. Their main grievances were the railroads attempts to cut train crews to 1 person from an already reduced 2 person crew size due to automation. On top of this the railroads have introduced so-called “Precision Scheduled Railroading” which has led to cut inspection times & massive cuts in maintenance as well as expanded the train sizes which are as high as 3 miles long which lead to last year’s rail disaster in East Palestine, OH.

Labor United Educational League has started our research and are working on a plan to help the workers of America further understand the effects of increased automation and AI, as well as how to move forward as a class-oriented trade union movement. I must say, the presentations today have largely matched the discussions we have had on automation. One campaign are now working on is to struggle with American railroad workers to fight for the nationalization of American railroads in the Public Rail Now campaign. Under this plan the workers would hold a stake in the running of the railroads and could potentially mitigate the negative effects of automation and would allow its implementation to be done in the benefit of the workers and not the massive profits that currently go to the railroad cartels.

Thank You and Solidarity

The post LUEL Assistant National Secretary’s Comments at IWI Symposium on AI & Trade Union Movement first appeared on Labor Today.

The post LUEL Assistant National Secretary’s Comments at IWI Symposium on AI & Trade Union Movement appeared first on Labor Today.