{ "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register", "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/labor-relations-specialists/", "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology", "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.", "scored_at": "2026-08-11", "model": "claude-opus-5", "occupation": { "title": "Labor Relations Specialists", "soc_code": "13-1075", "category": "Business", "us_employment": 64810, "median_annual_wage": 95420 }, "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 43, "contested": false, "near_boundary": false, "dimensions": { "task_resistance": 9, "embodiment": 5, "liability_shield": 3, "trust_premium": 13, "judgment_accountability": 13 }, "reasoning": { "task_resistance": "At 9, the split is real: the contract-interpretation memos, Article-by-Article redlines, grievance logs, and NLRB filing prep that fill most weeks are text-in/text-out work a model does competently, while the actual table sessions, caucus strategy, and Weingarten-rights investigatory interviews stay human — which is why this sits at 9 rather than the 4 of a pure document analyst or the 15 of a chief negotiator who does nothing but bargain.", "embodiment": "The 5 reflects that you are not on a screen exclusively — you are in plant break rooms for grievance step meetings, walking the floor to see the disputed job assignment, and in hotel conference rooms for multi-day bargaining — but nothing you touch requires manual skill or exposes you to an uncontrolled site, so it lands just above desk-only rather than in the field band.", "liability_shield": "A 3 is correct because nothing in the LMRA or NLRA requires you to hold a licence: SHRM-CP or the LRP credential is resume decoration, unfair labor practice charges are filed against the employer as a legal entity, and when a settlement goes wrong it is the company's outside labor counsel — a member of the bar — who carries the professional exposure, not you.", "trust_premium": "13 recognizes that your value to management is largely the standing relationship with a specific union business agent — the off-the-record call that kills a grievance before Step 3, the credibility that lets you say \"this is my last number\" and be believed — but it is capped there because that relationship is with a counterparty who is institutionally adversarial and rotates with union elections, unlike a therapist's or a wealth advisor's book.", "judgment_accountability": "13 fits because you decide unilaterally whether to settle a discharge grievance or take it to arbitration, what the employer's opening economic package is, and whether conduct crosses into a Section 8(a)(5) refusal to bargain — genuinely consequential ambiguous calls — but the final ratification, the strike authorization, and the litigate-or-settle decision go up to a VP or general counsel, keeping you below the band reserved for people whose signature is the last one." }, "rationale": "A large share of the job is document work AI already handles well: parsing collective bargaining agreements, drafting grievance responses, summarizing arbitration precedent, tracking wage and benefit comparables, and writing policy language. What does not automate is sitting across a table from a union bargaining committee, reading the room during a strike threat, and owning the concession you just made. The modal worker splits time between contract administration (exposed) and live negotiation and grievance handling (durable), and headcount pressure will land on the administration half.", "outlook": "Expect the contract-administration workload to compress sharply while a smaller cohort of negotiators, arbitration advocates, and strike-risk advisors keeps or grows its value.", "what_would_raise_it": { "levers": [ { "dimension": "task_resistance", "change": "Task-mix shift: if contract administration (CBA parsing, comparables tracking, grievance drafting, policy language) is absorbed by AI, the surviving role is live bargaining, strike contingency, and grievance settlement authority — genuinely two-tier work, so the residual job is the judgment tier even as headcount falls", "plausibility": "already happening", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "trust_premium", "change": "If national unions adopt bargaining-table policies refusing to negotiate against AI-generated proposals or AI-present sessions — the WGA/SAG-AFTRA 2023 AI clauses and the Teamsters' contract language on automation are the template — employers must staff a named human negotiator regardless of cost", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 4 }, { "dimension": "judgment_accountability", "change": "If NLRB or arbitrators treat unattributed AI-drafted bargaining communications as evidence of bad-faith or surface bargaining under NLRA 8(a)(5), a named human must own each proposal and concession on the record", "plausibility": "plausible", "would_add": 3 }, { "dimension": "liability_shield", "change": "If duty-of-fair-representation suits or state public-sector labor boards (e.g. PERB rules) require a designated human agent of record for grievance dispositions and interest arbitration filings, with personal exposure for the disposition", "plausibility": "unlikely", "would_add": 3 } ], "ceiling_note": "No license exists for this occupation and none is being proposed, so liability_shield has a low ceiling; the realistic path is a smaller, more senior negotiation-only role rather than a protected one." }, "adjudication": null, "employment_history": { "points": [ { "y": 2017, "emp": 78510, "wage": 63200 }, { "y": 2018, "emp": 77140, "wage": 67790 }, { "y": 2019, "emp": 75580, "wage": 69020 }, { "y": 2020, "emp": 70050, "wage": 73240 }, { "y": 2021, "emp": 63810, "wage": 77010 }, { "y": 2022, "emp": 62200, "wage": 82010 }, { "y": 2023, "emp": 62800, "wage": 89980 }, { "y": 2024, "emp": 64590, "wage": 93500 }, { "y": 2025, "emp": 64810, "wage": 95420 } ], "from": 2017, "to": 2025, "change_pct": -17.5, "comparable_from": 2019, "spans_soc_revision": true }, "pivots": [ { "slug": "law-teachers-postsecondary", "title": "Law Teachers, Postsecondary", "verdict": "EXPOSED", "risk_resistance": 59, "median_wage": 128500, "overlap": 70, "skills_to_close": [ "Learning Strategies", "Instructing", "Science", "Active Learning" ] } ], "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms" }