Tech fears are showing up on picket lines

The United Automobile Workers strike is in its second day, and already it’s being framed as potentially the most costly of work stoppages from the “summer of strikes.”

Unions aren’t just fighting for an inflation-beating wage boost. They also are campaigning for job security at a time when workers increasingly fear that shifts to new technologies, including electric vehicles and artificial intelligence, threaten their jobs, and tech bosses themselves say this gloomy outlook is inevitable.

Union leaders had a seat at the table this month in Washington at an AI forum organized by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, and attended by tech leaders such as Elon Musk, Satya Nadella of Microsoft and Jensen Huang of Nvidia.