These large facilities now occupy three percent of total county land and a full forty percent of the county budget but while the industry has been booming, local residents have suffered. Wholesale electricity costs have been driven up more than two-hundred and fifty percent in the last five years alone.

In a 2025 report from Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review it has been revealed that in the previous year, the state of Virginia lost more than a billion dollars to its sales and use tax exemptions for data centers, compared to all other state incentive programs which cost the state a combined two hundred and thirty five million dollars. Meanwhile, as of 2024, data center tax breaks make up more than eighty one percent of of all Virginia state incentive costs.

In the areas surrounding the newly constructed data centers the constant humming of the giant computer systems has become loud enough to scare away the local wildlife. In a statement to the BBC, Loudoun resident Greg Pirio laments “There are no birds around here anymore.”

The Virginia House and Senate passed a bill this year intended to regulate private sector AI use and development but it was vetoed by Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, leaving Loudoun residents vulnerable and without redress. As one Loudoun resident said to the BBC “I never thought that a data center would be built across the street from my house. I would not have bought this house if I had known what was going in across the street.”

The post Rapid Data Center Construction Results in Electricity Price Increase first appeared on Labor Today.

The post Rapid Data Center Construction Results in Electricity Price Increase appeared first on Labor Today.

First I would like to send solidarity from the class-oriented workers of the US to all the Palestinian and Syrian people throughout the world. My name is Scott and I am the Assistant National Secretary of Labor United Educational League in the United States. We are a movement of rank-and-file workers in the United States aimed and building a class-oriented center within the American trade union movement.

I would like to thank the WFTU, IWI for having this presentation today and I would like to thank the speakers today for a great presentation on the struggles the workers of the world face with the increasing implementation of AI. I would just like to give a quick update on some struggles facing the American working class due to the implementation of AI & automation. In October, the longshoremen on the East & Gulf Coast ports in the US went on strike due to the increased automation through AI instituted in the ports in the US. After 3-days on strike they came to a tentative agreement on wages and agreed to a 90 day extension on their expired Master Contract while they continued to negotiate on automation. Last month, negotiations were cut off and it appears they will be going back on strike January 15 with the goal of preventing automation on their ports.

Also, two years ago railroad workers in the US were blocked by the Biden regime from striking due to the Draconian Railway Labor Act signed into law here in 1926. Their main grievances were the railroads attempts to cut train crews to 1 person from an already reduced 2 person crew size due to automation. On top of this the railroads have introduced so-called “Precision Scheduled Railroading” which has led to cut inspection times & massive cuts in maintenance as well as expanded the train sizes which are as high as 3 miles long which lead to last year’s rail disaster in East Palestine, OH.

Labor United Educational League has started our research and are working on a plan to help the workers of America further understand the effects of increased automation and AI, as well as how to move forward as a class-oriented trade union movement. I must say, the presentations today have largely matched the discussions we have had on automation. One campaign are now working on is to struggle with American railroad workers to fight for the nationalization of American railroads in the Public Rail Now campaign. Under this plan the workers would hold a stake in the running of the railroads and could potentially mitigate the negative effects of automation and would allow its implementation to be done in the benefit of the workers and not the massive profits that currently go to the railroad cartels.

Thank You and Solidarity

The post LUEL Assistant National Secretary’s Comments at IWI Symposium on AI & Trade Union Movement first appeared on Labor Today.

The post LUEL Assistant National Secretary’s Comments at IWI Symposium on AI & Trade Union Movement appeared first on Labor Today.