In move that would protect unionized government jobs, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors will require county departments to suggest new jobs to create if positions are cut due to the implementation of artificial intelligence.
The rapid expansion of AI has left many industries and institutions questioning how to integrate and adapt to the growing technology. Local governments, including San Mateo County, are deciding how to develop policies that embrace the use of AI in their operations while also protecting jobs that could be at risk of being replaced. Most of the jobs in the county government are unionized, and most of the supervisors were elected with union support.
“There was the Industrial Revolution, now there’s the AI revolution,” said Supervisor Jackie Speier at the meeting. “We’re going to have to adapt.”
At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Supervisor Ray Mueller urged the board to adopt a resolution he authored that aims to protect jobs amid uncertainty about the impacts AI will have on the county’s workforce.
“We are searching for real jobs for the future, not jobs that can be cut away,” Mueller said.
The resolution mandates that county departments estimate the number of positions that could be eliminated if AI technologies were to be adopted.
It also requires departments that have implemented AI to develop a proposal for creating new jobs in an amount that is equal to or greater than the number of positions estimated to be dissolved.
Another aspect of the resolution prevents workers whose positions are affected by AI technology to be fired. Roles deemed no longer necessary due to the integration of AI won’t be eliminated until those positions become vacant through natural attrition such as retirement, transfers or voluntarily separation.
“I want to make sure, as we move forward, that we embrace artificial intelligence,” said board president David Canepa. “At the same time, we do it in a responsible way.”
The resolution passed unanimously. The board also agreed to create a subcommittee that will work to prepare a study session on the impacts of AI for both the county workforce and improving efficiency in county operations.
“There’s some good news in AI that we can’t disregard,” Speier said. “But I think we should have a study session so we can get our arms around it in a much more meaningful way.”
Julie Lind, executive officer of the San Mateo County Central Labor Council, said she sees the resolution as a critical barrier for safekeeping county jobs against the burgeoning AI movement.
“This resolution puts in place necessary guardrails to ensure that AI doesn’t become just another reason to cut corners or to cut jobs,” Lind said during the public comment period. “It says if we’re going to move forward with this technology, we need to move forward responsibly.” — Bay City News
It’s a circle. The unions fund the campaigns of these county supervisors. Then the supervisors pass an ordinance like this.
Good to know government workers don’t have to worry about losing their jobs to AI like the rest of us do, and after we’ve all been unemployed we can keep paying for them.
Saving obsolete jobs is a mug’s game. AI, like all previous time-saving technologies, makes workers more valuable, productive and efficient, which are the antithesis of luddites in government – itself an antiquated system that should be abolished. If the county supervisors and unions had their way, we’d still be living in the horse and buggy era, drowning in manure, with sub-saharan Africa quality of life.
And our “leaders” keep approving robo-taxis which will further increase unemployment even though these robo-cars are known to be dangerous.
Then they ask us to fund housing to help the ever-increasing number of homeless while the YIMBYs and the “leaders” they back keep blaming bad bad grandma instead of the companies throwing people out of work.
It seems strange that some government employees have permanent employment regardless of their qualifications whereas employees in the private sector seldom do.
Speier is herself an example of permanent government employment. Tired of serving in the House of Representatives, she comes back to San Mateo County full-time to serve on the Board of Supervisors, thereby blocking a younger person from serving.