(The Daily Observer) The Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union (ABWU) is demanding that workers be consulted before artificial intelligence systems are introduced into workplaces, warning that some jobs are already at risk of being automated.
The call came during the union’s 59th annual delegates’ conference, held on 20 September 2026 under the theme, “Celebrating 59 Years of Stewardship, Embracing the Changes, and Preparing for the Future of Work.”
Union officials told delegates that AI poses an unprecedented threat to employment, identifying data-entry roles, customer service positions and routine work in the banking and hotel sectors as particularly vulnerable.
The union, however, framed its position not as a rejection of technological advancement, but as a demand for transparency and worker involvement before new systems are implemented.
“AI is here and it is real,” ABWU General Secretary David Massiah declared. “It is no longer something discussed in science fiction, technology conferences or lurking in our imaginations. It is here. It is entering workplaces, changing how information is processed, services are delivered, how jobs are performed, and it has the potential to change the very definition of work.”
David Massiah
Massiah said that although technological change is inevitable, the union will insist that affected workers are consulted before AI systems are deployed. The message resonated throughout the two-day conference as delegates considered changes reshaping the Caribbean labour market.
Kavan Gayle, a veteran Jamaican trade unionist, senator and president-general of Jamaica’s Bustamante Industrial Trade Union, also warned about language that employers use to obscure the human cost of technological change.
“When you listen to the language of those who speak about corporate restructuring, you know they use terms like ‘we are improving efficiency’. Ask them, efficiency for whom?” he said. “They tell us, ‘we are optimizing operations’. What happens to the people performing those operations? They say to us, ‘we are leveraging technology’. We ask them, what happens to the jobs that are being replaced? Technology with the workers, innovation with dignity, productivity with fairness, and transformation with consultation.”
Senator Kavan Gayle
Drawing on three decades of experience representing service-sector workers, Gayle challenged Caribbean leaders to place workers’ concerns at the centre of strategies for adopting new technology. His remarks underscored that the issue extends beyond Antigua and Barbuda and requires a coordinated regional union response.
Delegates were also told that workers with AI literacy are more valuable to employers than those without such skills, making retraining and professional development a collective bargaining priority rather than treating AI solely as a threat.
Speakers emphasised that technological displacement need not be permanent if retraining programmes are established proactively.
Union officials called for stronger legislation to ensure that workers receive adequate notice before new technology is introduced, have access to retraining programmes and are meaningfully consulted on how innovations will be used in their sectors.
