Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of the UNI Global Union, will travel to the World Economic Forum in Davos next week to warn that workers face a converging crisis of accelerating unemployment due to AI and a growing far-right techno-authoritarianism that will centralize power and deepen inequality.
WEF’s risk report cites harmful outcomes from AI as the biggest threat. Hoffman argues that 2026 will be a critical tipping point, with job losses due to AI accelerating at a much greater scale than governments and institutions are prepared to respond to.
“After spending hundreds of billions of dollars on AI over the past few years, shareholders and CEOs will demand a return on this investment in 2026. This may mean a rapid reorganization of the global labor market in the short term. But no matter the pace of change, no one disputes that the end result will be a massive exodus,” she said.
Mr Hoffmann warned that governments, employers and global institutions were dangerously unprepared for what was to come.
“We are unprepared to deal with the social consequences of this transformation. There is little serious discussion about who will bear the costs of the disruption. Governments need to prepare new taxes and new public investment. Employers should stop resisting trade unions and collective bargaining. People must be able to negotiate their working conditions and shape their future.”
He added that the AI boom follows a familiar and troubling pattern of private profits and public costs to social and environmental harm.
“Billionaire tech oligarchy should not be allowed to externalize the costs of AI, including water usage, electricity demand, carbon pollution, and the destruction of good jobs. There is all the talk of ‘shared prosperity,’ but no plans to redistribute the benefits. Most workers lack collective bargaining power with their employers, and this is especially true for white-collar and tech workers who are already feeling the disruptive effects of AI first.”
“Technology companies argue that it is the role of government to manage social costs. But they are also trying to seize state power and shape policy to suit their own interests. Communities need stronger safety nets to weather the disruption, and stronger regulation of AI is urgently needed. Instead, we are seeing the rise of tech authoritarianism that attacks unions, weakens regulation, and further centralizes power.”
“The choices made now will determine whether AI brings shared progress or entrenched power. If we choose to ‘wait and see’ it will be a decision that wins inequality.”
Check out last year’s message to Davos.
