Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order directing California agencies to explore ways to limit job losses from artificial intelligence, a move andrew sorkin would read as a labor response to a fast-moving tech cutback cycle. The order came a day after Meta laid off 8,000 workers and cited AI in a memo to staff.
Newsom’s order tells agencies to study severance policies, subsidized employment, job training, stock compensation, cooperative ownership for workers and how unions are negotiating over AI. It also calls for a report on AI’s impact on the California labor market, giving state officials a formal mandate to weigh worker protections rather than leave the issue to company policy alone.
Meta layoffs and AI claims
Meta’s cuts provided the immediate backdrop. Mark Zuckerberg cited AI in a memo to staff after the layoffs, and Tech companies Cisco and Block also recently cited AI after laying off thousands of workers. Newsom’s order follows that pattern and gives California agencies a way to examine whether the state can blunt some of the pressure on displaced workers.
The order lands after a different labor development in Sacramento: the California Senate passed the No Robo Bosses Act two days before the article was published. That bill would prevent businesses from using decisions made by AI and other automated systems as the sole reason a person gets fired or disciplined. Newsom vetoed a similar bill last fall, so the new order steps into a space where lawmakers have already started trying to write rules into law.
Lorena Gonzalez on the order
Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Labor Federation, said the executive order is welcome but insufficient. “We are glad that Governor Newsom is acknowledging the potential harm of AI on workers, but it’s not enough to just study the issue, we have to take action now. Catastrophic job loss from AI is not inevitable, it’s a political choice.”
Her criticism echoes a pledge made in February by AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, members of the California Labor Federation and labor leaders in Democratic primary states. They said they would pull support for a Newsom 2028 presidential campaign if he did not take steps to protect workers from artificial intelligence.
Newsom’s AI record
The governor has already signed AI-related executive orders in 2023 and last month, making this the latest in a series of state moves on the technology. Newsom’s push to examine worker protections stands in contrast to President Trump’s deregulatory stance, after Trump signed an executive order to prevent states from regulating AI.
For California workers facing AI-driven layoffs, the practical question now is whether the state’s study turns into rules on severance, training and bargaining power. For Newsom, the order adds a formal worker-protection track just as the Legislature advances its own limits on automated firing and discipline.
