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Candidates Say Moratorium, Training and Labor Seats Needed to Protect Jobs from AI
Summary
Speakers at the forum urged a moratorium on new AI data centers while states study labor impacts, and called for workforce retraining and union involvement in policy decisions to mitigate displacement risks.
Forum participants told attendees that preparing for AI’s workforce effects requires both study and active policy: moratoria to buy time, retraining programs and labor representation in decision-making.
Jay Higgins, a candidate for state representative, proposed a one-year statewide moratorium on new AI data centers to study health, environmental and employment consequences. Multiple speakers, including Kate Lippert Garabedian and Carrie McDonald, said workers and organized labor should have seats at policymaking tables and that the state should fund workforce retraining to ease transitions if jobs are displaced by automation or AI.
Candidates disagreed on the scale of disruption but converged on policy responses: pause siting decisions to study impacts, invest in retraining and create advisory councils comprised of labor, industry and public-interest representatives to guide AI deployment in public-sector uses.
