AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on Women’s Leadership and AI

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to open Women’s History Month and Women in Construction Week with a wide-ranging discussion on organizing momentum, women’s leadership in the labor movement and the urgent need for worker-centered protections as artificial intelligence spreads across the economy.

Shuler explained that the federation comprises 64 unions representing nearly 15 million working people and argued that turbulent economic conditions are pushing more workers to see unions as the practical solution. She highlighted women-led organizing in healthcare, service work, public employment and emerging sectors and stressed that unions remain the nation’s largest organized force for working women.

On technology, Shuler said the labor movement is not trying to stop innovation but to shape it through collective bargaining, enforceable guardrails and state-level legislation that keeps human oversight in hiring and discipline, limits surveillance and ensures workers share in productivity gains.

• AFL-CIO reports historic union momentum: Public support for unions is near 70 percent, and organizing continues across regions and industries.
• AFL-CIO puts worker guardrails at the center of AI policy: Shuler says collective bargaining and state action are key to protecting jobs, privacy and fairness.
• AFL-CIO frames women as the backbone of today’s labor movement: Women are half the workforce and a driving force in organizing, bargaining and leadership.

Liz Shuler Opens Women’s History Month and Women in Construction Week With a Labor Update

Women’s History Month arrived, and the labor movement is not asking for permission to be heard. On America’s Work Force, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler returned to the program to discuss a surge of organizing, the expanding role of women in union leadership and the stakes of artificial intelligence for working people.

Shuler leads a federation of 64 unions representing nearly 15 million workers. In her view, the current moment is defined by turbulence — economic instability, workplace insecurity and a growing sense that the system is not delivering for working families. Shuler, though, argued that the same turmoil is also producing something else — clarity.

Workers, she said, are increasingly recognizing that collective action is not an abstract ideal. It is the most direct tool available for improving pay, benefits, safety and dignity.

Union Growth and Public Support Reach Historic Highs

Shuler pointed to organizing gains and rising public support as evidence that workers are “waking up to their power.” She highlighted that union support is at a historic high, with overall public approval near 70 percent and even higher among younger workers.

When support rises across demographics, it becomes easier for workers to imagine organizing as normal rather than exceptional.

Shuler also emphasized that organizing is not confined to a single region or industry. She described momentum in places and sectors long labeled “impossible,” including healthcare, service work, public employment and newer organizing fronts.

The takeaway from Shuler’s framing is that organizing is not a trend line. It is a response to lived conditions — workers confronting burnout, unstable schedules, rising costs and workplaces that ask for more while offering less.

Women Are Leading Organizing Drives and Collective Action

Shuler used Women’s History Month to underscore a point she believes remains underappreciated: the labor movement is a working women’s movement.

Women, she said, make up half of America’s workforce and half of the labor movement. They are leading organizing drives, strikes and bargaining fights in multiple industries. She described women as breadwinners in a large share of households, which raises the stakes of workplace inequality.

Shuler argues that the labor movement’s women-centered impact is not limited to symbolism; it is structural. Union contracts deliver pay transparency and clear wage standards, reducing the space for discriminatory pay practices. In her view, if workers want equal pay, union membership remains the most reliable pathway because wages are defined by job classification and contract language rather than opaque individual negotiation.

She also stressed that workplace challenges still fall disproportionately on women, including low wages in care and service sectors and the lack of guaranteed paid leave and affordable childcare.

Leadership Barriers Persist, but Visibility Changes What’s Possible

Shuler reflected on what it means to be the first woman to lead the AFL-CIO and how visibility can accelerate leadership development.

She described a persistent dynamic in which women often question their readiness for leadership roles, even when they are qualified. She noted research suggesting women may need repeated encouragement before accepting a role they perceive as outside their comfort zone.

Her message was not that women lack confidence. It was that workplace culture often conditions women to over-credential themselves before stepping forward. Shuler argued that leadership pathways expand when women see other women in positions of authority and when unions actively cultivate mentorship and support.

Shuler’s IBEW Organizing Roots Show How Campaigns Build Leaders

Shuler traced her early labor experience to organizing work with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 125 in Portland, Ore. She described organizing efforts that faced classic anti-union pressure, including intimidation and tactics that can chill worker participation.

Even when a campaign does not succeed, she argued, it can still build leaders and strengthen the case for wall-to-wall unionism, bringing workers with different job classifications into one collective structure.

Shuler also described being the only woman on professional staff at the time and the challenge of being taken seriously in a male-dominated environment. She credited mentors and the experience of learning to assert her voice as foundational training that still applies today.

AI and Automation: Technology Must Be Shaped, Not Feared

A significant focus of the AFL-CIO is artificial intelligence and advanced technology. Shuler said no job is immune to technological change and argued that the labor movement is not trying to stop innovation.

Instead, she framed collective bargaining as a tool that can make technology fair and safe, ensuring it improves jobs rather than dehumanizes workers or eliminates positions without accountability.

Shuler warned that unregulated implementation of AI could cause widespread job disruption. She advocated for worker-centered guardrails, including:

• Human oversight in automated systems that influence hiring, discipline or termination
• Limits on surveillance and protections for worker privacy and data
• Fair sharing of productivity gains so workers benefit from efficiency rather than being replaced by it

State-Level AI Legislation Becomes the Front Line

Shuler said that while collective bargaining is essential, policy must also move. With federal action stalled, she described state legislatures as the key arena for worker-centered AI protections.

She noted that the labor movement is developing model legislation aligned with AFL-CIO principles to help state and local bodies go on offense rather than just play defense.

Her emphasis was practical: workers need seats at the tables where technology is developed and deployed — from legislative rooms to workplace implementation decisions.

Women’s Economic Equity Remains a Core Labor Fight

Shuler connected technology to broader economic equity issues. She argued that women’s work is still undervalued and that gaps in paid leave and childcare access limit women’s ability to achieve stability.

She also highlighted that pay inequity remains more severe for women of color and framed “Equal Pay Day” as a reminder of how long women must work into the next year to match what men earned the prior year.

For Shuler, the labor movement’s role is to turn these realities into bargaining demands and policy priorities and then enforce them.

Shuler’s Message to Future Women Leaders: Say Yes

Asked what she would tell a woman who wants a better life and is considering leadership, Shuler’s advice was direct: do not wait to be perfect.

She encouraged women to take chances, step outside comfort zones and build networks of mentors. Leadership, she argued, is not a destination chosen at the start of a career. It is built through repeated decisions to step forward.

In a moment when organizing is accelerating and technology is reshaping work, Shuler’s message is that women are not on the sidelines of labor’s future. They are writing it.

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