Writing in the Guardian, union organiser Tyler Turner argues that American labour unions should unite behind a moratorium on new AI datacentre construction until protections are in place for workers, communities and the environment. He criticises the North American Building Trades Unions for signing agreements with firms including BlackRock, Meta and OpenAI to help build datacentres, arguing that while these deals secure short-term construction jobs, they ultimately help corporations build the infrastructure that will automate away far more jobs than it creates, including potentially those of the workers building them.

Turner cites figures suggesting datacentres deliver very poor returns in permanent employment relative to investment: a Rockland County, New York facility reportedly received $77m in tax breaks for just one permanent job, while a Virginia study found datacentres create fewer than 1% of the permanent jobs per dollar invested compared with other industries. He also highlights mounting energy demands, noting Texas's 335 existing AI datacentres are already pushing up electricity prices, with 248 more planned. Turner calls for unions to back the federal Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act proposed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and points to New York governor Kathy Hochul's recent state-level permitting pause as a positive, if insufficient, first step.