Worker-led AI governance: Hollywood writers' strikes and the worker power

This article theorizes worker-led AI governance through the 2023 Hollywood writers' strike, arguing that workers can shape the governance of generative AI from below. Drawing on the power resources approach, it examines how the Writers Guild of America (WGA) mobilized institutional, structural, and discursive power to negotiate the first enforceable agreement on generative AI in the workplace. Through analysis of strike campaigns, social media discourse, and interviews with organizers, the article explores the parameters for this paradigmatic case of worker-led AI governance. While institutional power was grounded in decades of collective bargaining and historical struggles over technological change, structural power emerged from writers' capacity to stop the production in the sector. Crucially, the article emphasizes the decisive role of discursive power. Through slogans, media interventions, and alliances with fans, writers reframed AI as a labor issue. This case contributes to debates on AI governance by demonstrating how worker power, under specific historical and structural conditions, can struggle for the governance of generative AI.