TL;DR
On September 4, the Coalition of Rutgers Unions (CRU) held a bargaining session with the Rutgers administration for 20,000 union-represented faculty and staff across the university. This session focused on the CRU proposal on Artificial Intelligence covering all aspects of our work environment: teaching and research; patient care; workload; performance; promotion; discipline, and job security. The unions proposed the establishment of a joint Artificial Intelligence Committee with oversight powers. Our bottom line is: Human workers must have the final authority on decisions made with the assistance of AI tools.
Highlights from the Session
CRU Unions Present the AI Proposal
In today’s session, the unions presented the CRU proposal on Artificial Intelligence (AI). This proposal was written with the intention of being widely applicable across multiple job categories in order to improve job security and protect the rights of workers across all of Rutgers.
The proposal focuses on creating limitations on the use of AI in order to protect the job security of our members. Additionally, the article recognizes the changing landscape of AI usage and proposes the establishment of a joint Artificial Intelligence Committee (AIC) that shall have oversight over AI contracts and usage at the university.
This is a new article about an evolving subject. Ryan Novosielski from HPAE stated: “One of the main intentions behind this proposal is to protect members from discipline related to AI.” Internal discussions are being had between union leaders about proper uses for AI and having a human hand in AI decision-making. Human workers must have the final authority on decisions made with the assistance of AI tools.
In addition to academic ramifications, there is a patient care aspect to AI use—doctors must have real relationships with patients, and vice versa. In the session, BHSNJ colleagues ardently defended the need for medical authority over decisions that hospitals want to make using AI. Human medical expertise should be the final say in how patients are treated, not AI.
There was some discussion over whether or not members should have the right to refuse AI in the workplace– in the case of AI note-taking, for example. When there is short staffing, doctors don’t have much choice but to use AI note-taking services. However, this can create an increase in workload since AI notetakers can often be wrong, and there is no accountability for AI services, unlike for human workers.
One member shared his experience with automated note-taking, stating that he had to sift through voluminous notes to find errors. He is a professional with the capability of weeding out the errors, but the point is that members want the right to refuse the use of AI, especially when it can add to their workload.
The unions are looking to create a collaborative process with the university for thinking through the unique problems posed by AI use in the workplace. Our goal is to ultimately protect jobs by protecting our people for the jobs of the future.
Next Steps
The Coalition of Rutgers Unions awaits management’s counterproposals.
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