The American Association of University Professors announced today its formal endorsement of the Data Center Moratorium Act, legislation championed by Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, that would enact a reasonable pause to the development of AI data centers to ensure the safety of local communities and humanity. The AAUP joins the National Nurses Union (NNU) in escalating a cross-sector labor resistance against reckless artificial intelligence deployment.
University administrators nationwide continue to approve multimillion-dollar contract commitments with AI firms despite tech executives openly admitting they lack defined educational use cases. This top-down implementation ignores severe institutional risks: imminent workforce displacement, inherent, unfixable data hallucinations, work intensification, systematic intellectual property theft, and widespread student skepticism.
The AAUP is committed to a higher education system where universities are the engines of democracy and human flourishing—not silent partners in a reckless technological arms race that burns through public resources while weakening the very institutions needed for democratic society.
“Higher education exists to advance human understanding, critical inquiry, and the public good—not to become subordinate to an extractive AI economy that deepens inequality and erodes democratic life,” said Todd Wolfson, AAUP president. “The unchecked expansion of AI data centers is not just an environmental crisis—it is a democratic one. These facilities consume staggering amounts of energy and water while consolidating power and wealth in the hands of a few tech corporations that increasingly shape how knowledge is produced, distributed, and controlled.”
The AAUP rejects the false choice between good union jobs and democratic oversight of technology. The future we need is one where the jobs created by technological transformation are high-road, unionized jobs built under strong labor standards and democratic public control—not a race to enrich a handful of corporations while communities absorb the costs.
The AAUP is proud to support the Sanders–Ocasio-Cortez moratorium because the future of technology must be governed democratically, sustainably, and in service of working people—not corporate profit.
Resistance is growing. Local communities have successfully blocked data center construction projects and faculty unions have blocked vendor contracts and codified protective language in collective bargaining agreements.
By joining forces with NNU, the AAUP aims to build powerful inter-industry momentum. Nurses and educators represent the frontline workers seeing early AI disruption. This joint labor front demands an immediate shift toward a careful, people-centered approach to technology infrastructure development that centers our communities, our schools, our health, and our future.