Artificial Intelligence and Collective Bargaining: Insights from Walton and McKersie’s Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations

The paper reports the findings of a large nationwide sur­vey This paper analyses the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on collective bargaining through the lens of Walton and McKersie’s behavioural theory of labour negotiation. The authors identify four key sub-processes of bargaining distributive bargaining, integrative bargaining, attitudi­nal structuring and intra-organisational bargaining and indicate how AI may reshape each of them. The article highlights both the potential of AI to support fair social dialogue and the risks of deepening inequalities and dehu­manising negotiation processes. It emphasises the current absence of AI as a tool on the side of trade unions, which in turn underscores the need to strengthen institutional safeguards protecting workers’ interests. The analysis con­cludes that the consequences of integrating AI into collec­tive bargaining depend not on the technology itself, but on the principles of transparency, co-governance and the ethical implementation of AI systems.

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