Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-03-30
Source: The Conversation – France (in French)– By Patrice Laroche, Professor of Management Sciences, University of Lorraine
Robots, artificial intelligence, digital technology: as technologies transform work, unions are often presented as an obstacle to innovation. On what evidence is this opinion based? And what if, far from hindering technological transformation, social dialogue could also accelerate it… Beyond catchphrase speeches, do employee unions really constitute a hindrance to technological innovation? Or are they, in certain contexts, an asset?
Deeply rooted, therepresentation of unions as inherently hostile to innovations and technological changerelies more on preconceived ideas than on robust empirical results. Available international statistics do not suggest a negative mechanical relationship between unionization and the adoption of new technologies (Figure 1).
Indeed, the Nordic countries, characterized by high unionization, are among those where the use of AI is most widespread, while several countries with low unionization levels display similarly modest levels of adoption. This dispersion suggests that the presence of unions alone does not explain the differences in technological adoption. Rather, these differences invite attention to institutional frameworks and the modalities of social dialogue.
Figure 1 – Unionization and adoption of AI in European companies in 2024
An age-old debate far from settled
In fact, the relationship between trade unions and productive investment is one of the great classics of labor economics.
Withmy colleague Chris Doucouliagos, we had indeed proposed, several years ago, a meta-analysis of the literature on this question. This study showed that the effects of unions on investment and innovation were far from univocal and strongly depended on institutional contexts.
It highlighted a recurring opposition between two theoretical visions:
- on one hand, trade unions as obstacles to investment;
- on the other hand, trade unions as actors in social dialogue likely to promote long-term strategies.
It is precisely in the continuation of this debate that today’s question of adopting advanced digital technologies is framed.
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Corporate social responsibility, a tool to bypass unions?
Theoretical debates
Economic theory does not offer a unique prediction regarding the role of unions. In a standard neoclassical representation, union presence is associated withincrease in labor costs. For a given technology, this increase in the relative wage encourages companies to substitute capital for labor, which can result in more productive or technological investment.
On the contrary, the so-called hold-up theory, initially proposed byAmerican economists Benjamin Klein, Robert Crawford, and Armen Alchian, highlights a disincentive mechanism to invest. By anticipating that part of the gains related to the investment may be captured later by employees (through wage negotiations, for example), the company may forego certain technologies that are technically accessible, leading to underinvestment.
Finally, a third approach emphasizes the role of unions ascollective voice mechanisms. By facilitating coordination, training, and acceptance of change, social dialogue can make investment more effective and sustainable.
The influence of the institutional negotiation framework
The relative importance of these mechanisms depends closely on the institutional framework within which union representation operates, as economists have pointed out.Justus Haucap and Christian Wey. In particular, the effect of unions on the adoption of digital technologies closely depends on the level at which collective bargaining is organized and the concrete role that employee representatives play within the company.
With its largely centralized wage negotiation and its nearby social dialogue, Italy is a particularly enlightening field of observation. In Italy, wage negotiation is largely centralized at the branch level, while union representation within companies focuses more on work organization, training, and employment conditions. This configuration limits rent-seeking behaviors at the company level and strengthens the role of unions as actors in local social dialogue.
It is in this context that a recent study by economists Fabio Berton, Stefano Dughera, and Andrea Ricci, conducted on several thousand Italian companies, analyzes the adoption of advanced digital technologies, using a rigorous methodologyaimed at correcting causality biases.
Clear results… and counter-intuitive
To overcome this classic problem of causality, the authors used a method called instrumental variables. They notably exploit an original indicator: the level of blood donations per inhabitant observed at the provincial level in the 1990s. Blood donation reflects altruistic dispositions and a sense of community, which promote union presence, without a direct link to the technological choices of companies several decades later. Combined with information on the past diffusion of unions by sector and region, this tool allows isolating a specific effect of employee representation on the digital transformation of companies.
The finding is unambiguous: companies with union representation have a significantly higher probability of adopting advanced digital technologies. On average, this probability is about 15 percentage points higher per year compared to non-unionized companies. These companies not only adopt technology more often but also adopt a greater number of technologies, indicating a deeper digital transformation.
Trade unions to better identify internal resistance
Several mechanisms help to understand this result. First, union presence can reduce internal resistance to change. By giving employees an opportunity to express themselves, it allows for anticipating conflicts and negotiating the terms of the technological transition.
Next, “unionized” companies invest more in training and experience greater job stability. However, advanced digital technologies often require specific skills and an accumulation of internal knowledge, which do not blend well with high turnover.
Finally, social dialogue helps establish a climate of trust conducive to long-term investment. Digital transformation is not just a matter of machines, but also of organization and cooperation.
Elected staff representatives, agents favorable to transformation?
These results do not mean that union presence always and everywhere promotes innovation. They primarily highlight the importance of the institutional framework. In systems where negotiation is highly decentralized and where unions have strong wage-setting power at the company level, the effects can be different. They also reveal a significant limitation of the Italian study: the authors do not distinguish the nature of the union organizations present in the company.
However, this aspect is far from insignificant. In contexts marked by strong union pluralism, such as Italy – or France – unions may pursue differentiated strategies and maintain varied relationships with employers, which can influence innovation dynamics. Fundamentally, it is therefore not so much the presence of unions that matters as their modes of action: depending on the configurations, they can just as well hinder innovation as make it possible.
At a time when artificial intelligence and automation are causing great social concerns, these results suggest moving beyond a simplistic opposition between innovation and employee protection. Technological transformation is also a social process, which is better negotiated than imposed. Therefore, rather than weakening social dialogue in the name of competitiveness, it might be more effective to strengthen it to support the digital transition of companies.
Patrice Laroche leads the WAVE (Workplace Arrangements and Voice Effects) program funded by the National Research Agency (ANR) within CEREFIGE (University of Lorraine)
–ref. Robots, AI, digital: what if the unions accelerated technological transformation?https://theconversation.com/robots-ai-digital-and-what-if-unions-accelerated-technological-transformation-278803