Thank you for that important question.
We certainly have seen significant changes in the workforce over the last number of years with AI, with gig work, with technological changes. The most critical thing for us as union workers is to make sure that we have a seat at the decision-making tables about our future. That means we need to be consulted in a meaningful way when it comes to these changes that we're experiencing in various sectors.
Therefore, I was very heartened to see the Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act recently passed, which actually gives workers a seat at the decision-making tables as we deal with some of the challenges of getting to net zero and moving jobs into a clean economy type of situation.
More specifically, with regard to gig work and AI, we need to look at some legislative priorities in terms of how we manage those particular issues. The definition of what a worker is no longer really fits with the new gig economy that we have. Is that worker in fact employed, or is that worker a freelance person? We haven't caught up in our provincial, territorial and federal governments in terms of how we actually define “workers” and what rights, privileges and benefits they actually have under existing legislation, so that has to be a very high priority for us to ensure that those workers also have a powerful paycheque.