Union representing millions of transport workers across the world are opening a landmark four-day transport workers’ AI conference – culminating in the launch of the ITF's global AI Principles.
The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) today opens its first global conference on artificial intelligence, bringing union leaders, negotiators and young transport workers from around the world to Colombo, Sri Lanka, to agree how the movement responds to the fastest-moving change in transport work in a generation.
The conference, held under the theme ‘Seizing Control’, runs from 15–18 September just as the world's attention shifts towards questioning the pace of unregulated AI development. The Conference will close with the adoption and launch of the ITF’s global AI Principles – demands on how artificial intelligence must be governed in transport workplaces.
Stephen Cotton, ITF General Secretary, said: “This week we will agree how our movement tackles AI, potentially the fastest-moving change to hit transport work in a generation. It's not a conversation about workers – it's a conversation by workers.
“When even those developing AI acknowledge that a slowdown is needed, stronger safeguards, regulation and independent oversight are needed, it’s a stark reminder for all employers that transparency, consultation and negotiation is paramount, particularly in safety-critical transport workplaces.
“AI is already endangering transport workers' jobs and protections. Transport workers must not be treated as test subjects for systems they cannot see, question or challenge. Workers must be at the table where decisions on AI are made, workers must seize control.
“Our demand is straightforward: no AI system should be introduced into a transport workplace without consultation, without transparency and without meaningful human oversight from the point of inception. That is what we will set out this week."
AI and algorithmic management are no longer confined to gig platforms. Rostering systems allocate flying hours. Port systems direct machinery. Telematics score a driver's every braking decision. Biometric monitoring operates in cabs and cabins, and automated systems set the pace on the warehouse floor. In many cases these systems are introduced without negotiation, and often without disclosure to the workers they manage.
Delegates will spend the week in Colombo examining what that means in practice: the impact of AI on jobs, working conditions, safety and pay; where the disruption falls hardest and where genuine opportunity exists; what training, reskilling and redeployment workers are owed; and where the gaps sit in regulation, in bargaining coverage and in union capacity.
Preeti Singh, Co-Chair of the ITF Young Workers' Committee, said:
"More and more young workers are entering transport with an algorithm in charge. We’re on precarious contracts, in roles exposed to automation, and we are rarely asked what we think about any of it. That is exactly why we are central to this work.
“Training and reskilling cannot be an afterthought, and neither can we. The demands we will agree this week are the ones that will shape how we live for the next forty years."
Underpinning the week is a single question: who benefits from the AI transition?
The ITF believes that technology can improve safety, enhance workers' jobs, increase people’s quality of life and enable better decision making – but only when workers have a say in how it is designed, procured and deployed. Without that, the same systems deliver surveillance, work intensification and discrimination – and in transport, AI failures can kill.
"It matters that this conference is happening here,” said Boa Athu, President and Chief Executive of the National Union of Seafarers Sri Lanka (NUSS).
“AI is designed in a handful of countries and deployed across the whole world, and workers in the Global South meet it with the least consultation and the weakest protection. Seafarers, dockers and drivers across Asia are already being monitored and managed by systems they have never been shown. Any response built without us will fail here first."
Over the coming days delegates will work through trade union responses to AI, the coordination needed to hold multinational transport companies to consistent standards across borders, and the link between what is agreed in Colombo and national trade union bargaining, global framework agreements and advocacy at the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The ITF’s global AI Principles will be adopted and launched on Friday 18 September. They will be grounded in international labour standards, including the ILO Convention concerning Decent Work in the Platform Economy adopted in June 2026 – the first binding global standard to address algorithmic management directly.
Notes to editors
- The ITF Transport Workers Conference on Artificial Intelligence runs from 15–18 September 2026 at the Hilton Colombo, 2 Sir Chittampalam A Gardiner Mawatha, Colombo 00200, Sri Lanka.
Delegates were selected through an open expression of interest process, with criteria applied to secure age, gender, regional and sectoral balance alongside practical experience of AI at work.
- Spokespeople available for interview: Stephen Cotton, ITF General Secretary; Baker Khundakji, ITF Director of Young Transport Workers and Future of Work Lead; Preeti Singh, ITF Young Workers' Committee Co-Chair; Horacio Calculli, ITF Future of Work Advisory Group Chair; Scott McDine, ITF Asia Pacific Regional Secretary; Boa Athu, President and Chief Executive, NUSS.
For interview requests, please contact: media@itf.org.uk
About the ITF
The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) is a democratic, affiliate-led federation of over 760 transport unions in 150 countries, representing more than 16.6 million transport workers. Founded in 1896, the ITF works to protect and improve the lives and futures of transport workers worldwide.
