Governor Gavin Newsom Signs California Federation of Labor Unions’ Sponsored Bills Regulating AI in the Workplace

Release Date: September 30, 2026

Press Contact: Shubhangi Domokos, [email protected]

Governor Gavin Newsom Signs California Federation of Labor Unions' Sponsored Bills Regulating AI in the Workplace

(Sacramento, CA) - Today, the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO and working people across the state declared victory when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Federation-sponsored first-in-the-nation bills into law establishing the strongest AI guardrails anywhere in the country.

"When working people organize, we get results. Workers across California have demanded that our state lead the way in regulating AI in our workplaces. And today, we see that begin to happen. Make no mistake, by signing these four first-in-the-nation bills, Governor Newsom has shown the country how we can begin to put guardrails on AI at work to ensure human control over this technology, limit surveillance, and put workers first," said Lorena Gonzalez, President of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO. "Today, California's workers and our unions have changed the national narrative on how Americans can fight back and win against AI taking over our jobs and workplaces."

This legislative package represents both a powerful and popular agenda, with polls showing these policies are strongly favored by American workers across the political spectrum. Polling overwhelmingly shows that working people want safeguards in place to protect them from AI abuses, from invasive surveillance to discrimination to outright replacement.

"Today is a victory for working people in California and a testament to the power of the labor movement and its allies. One day after President Trump welcomed Big Tech CEOs to the White House and touted the administration's support for 'moral guardrails' and 'self-regulation,' Governor Newsom has signed some of the strongest state legislation in the country to protect working people from the harms of unregulated, untested AI," said Liz Shuler, President of the National AFL-CIO. "These bills will now become law in spite of a massive corporate lobbying campaign and millions of dollars spent to defeat them. There is still a long way to go to ensure that working people have a say in how AI technology is developed and implemented in the workplace-both in California and nationwide-but these bills are an essential step forward. When working people stand together, we can take on Big Tech-and we can win."

"By signing these bills into law, California has shown that states can act now to protect workers from the dangers of artificial intelligence in our lives and our workplaces. The work of President Gonzalez and the California Labor Federation to get these bills over the finish line reflects the hard work of labor unions and the overwhelming majority of Americans who want strong, pro-worker guardrails on AI," said Chrissy Lynch, President of the Massachusetts Labor Federation, AFL-CIO. "I am proud to serve alongside President Gonzalez as co-chairs of the AFL-CIO's State Federation AI Task Force. Today, California becomes the first state to finally pass meaningful legislation on AI in the workplace. It is time for Massachusetts to act to protect workers from the harms of AI."

"There is clearly still work to be done, but Governor Newsom and the California Labor Movement are providing other states and the nation a clear example of how by letting workers lead, we can stop some of the worst abuses of AI at work. We must continue to push for regulations to ensure we're controlling this technology, not being controlled by it," President Gonzalez added.

Today, Gov. Newsom signed the Federation's following sponsored bills into law:

• SB 947 (McNerney) which bans bosses from using AI to discipline or fire workers without human oversight and corroborating data. In 2025, Governor Newsom vetoed SB 7, a previous version of the No AI Bosses Act. (Co-sponsored by the Labor Federation and the Teamsters)
• SB 951 (Reyes) which modernizes the WARN Act to provide workers additional information on layoffs caused by AI and directs the EDD to study the impact of AI on hiring and the workforce. (Sponsored by the Labor Federation)
• AB 1331 (Elhawary) which bans the use of any AI surveillance in workplace bathrooms. (Co-sponsored by the Labor Federation and the Teamsters)
• AB 1883 (Bryan) which bans employers from using potentially biased and invasive forms of AI-powered surveillance in the workplace to recognize, infer or predict workers' emotional states or collect their neural data. (Co-sponsored by the Labor Federation and the Teamsters)
• AB 1979 (Bonta) which requires licensed health care professionals to remain the decision-maker in health care clinical practice, not AI. (Sponsored by CNA)

Earlier this month, Governor Newsom also signed the following sponsored and Labor-supported legislation taking on Big Tech and regulating AI:

• SB 928 (Cervantes), which prohibits CSU faculty from being replaced by AI. (Sponsored by the CFA)
• AB 2148 (Muratsuchi), which ensures that public school employees and contractors must be people and not AI. (Sponsored by the CFT)
• AB 1609 (Zbur): Requires business to provide human customer service reps within 15 minutes of a request. (Sponsored by CWA)
• AB 1776 (Aguiar-Curry), which gives the state more tools to combat corporate monopolies that drive down wages, make it harder to unionize and raise prices for consumers. (Co-sponsored by the Labor Federation, UFCW, the Teamsters, NNU-CNA, WGAW and SEIU California, UDW)
• SB 1050 (Ashby), which requires advertisers to disclose if a performer is created by AI. (Sponsored by SAG-AFTRA)

President Lorena Gonzalez also serves as Co-Chair of the AFL-CIO's State Fed Artificial Intelligence Task Force with President Chrissy Lynch of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.

For more information, or to set up an interview with Lorena Gonzalez to discuss the Federation's first-in-the-nation AI bill signings, please contact Shubhangi Domokos, [email protected].

The California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO represents over 1,300 affiliated unions in California with over 2.3 million union members in trucking, retail, hospitality, janitorial, construction, health care, local and state government, education, arts and entertainment, warehousing and logistics, manufacturing, and every other sector of the economy.

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