Oct 28 (Reuters) - On more than 100,000 acres of Nevada desert east of Reno, one of the world's largest concentrations of data centers is taking shape, providing years of work for thousands of electricians, pipefitters and other union tradespeople who are building it.
About 400 miles southeast, along the iconic Las Vegas Strip, the AI technology powered by such data centers is taking a toll: Self-driving Zoox and Waymos are replacing human-driven taxis and valets; casino floor bartenders are being
replaced by robots; and MGM's massive call center is slashing hundreds of jobs.
That split screen is challenging the Nevada Teamsters, a politically powerful network of local labor unions representing 30,000 workers across the construction, transportation and hospitality industries, many of whom will be voting in the Nov. 3 elections. Some want to see new data-center construction halted or slowed. Others view the boom as a gift.
"My job is to represent all of our unions," said Ross Kinson, the Nevada Teamsters’ political director, adding the group had launched a process in April to find a unified stance ahead of the November polls.
"This is a very, very important issue to the building trades, and it's providing a lot of jobs and creating good opportunities for a lot of people." But, he said, he has been encouraging members to consider the flip side: "What is it doing to our jobs?"
Nevada unions’ soul-searching reflects the national debate underway over whether regulation should slow down AI development amid conflicting projections of job destruction and creation – and whether AI will ultimately lift humanity or harm it.
It’s likely to affect Nevada's voting on Nov. 3.
The Nevada Teamsters interviewed more than 180 political candidates from both parties ahead of the election, Kinson said. Those who didn’t support strong worker protections, or those looking for an outright ban on new data-center construction, were unlikely to win the union's backing.
"It's a political minefield for politicians to tiptoe through," said Kinson.
Nevada will also play a significant role in the 2028 presidential elections as the second state in the Democratic primary schedule behind South Carolina.
ROBOT BARTENDERS
On a suburban street just off the Las Vegas Strip, 63-year-old Larry Goldfinger and a group of fellow Teamsters he jokingly calls "the walking dead" trudge through the desert heat, clipboards in hand. They’re knocking on doors to promote candidates they believe will protect the city’s workers from AI-driven job losses.
Goldfinger has spent nearly three decades as a valet at some of the Strip's most iconic casinos, and another decade in Vegas hospitality jobs – work he now fears will dry up as AI automation takes over everything from concierge services to bartending.
"I raised my family, and I have had a good life doing it, and I feel like these guys that are 30ish aren't going to be able to do that," he said, wearing a Teamsters baseball cap to shield his head from the Nevada sun.
By 2035, AI and automation could put up to 92,000 Southern Nevada hospitality jobs at risk, or roughly one-third of that workforce, according to an analysis by RCG Economics.
Teamsters Local 986 has already been losing call-center workers at casinos to AI automation, while taxi drivers and valets face pressure from the expansion of autonomous-vehicle fleets operated by Waymo and Zoox. Robot bartenders and touchscreen hotel check-ins have also become increasingly common.
MGM Resorts laid off around 200 call-center workers last year, Kinson said. On a recent investor call, MGM International CFO Jonathan Halkyard said about 80% of guest interactions "now take place via AI/digital platforms."
MGM declined to comment for this story but directed Reuters to a labor contract it had reached with culinary union members in 2023. It promised advanced notice of AI-driven job losses along with health care and severance pay for those affected.
The Las Vegas economy is no stranger to booms, busts and technological change. But how it navigates the AI-era will have huge consequences, said John Restrepo, principal of RCG Economics.
"If they use those tools to just do massive job displacement, that's not going to be good," he said.
Goldfinger said he worries the rise of AI in Las Vegas will not only cost the city lots of jobs, but also ultimately hurt business by making it less welcoming to tourists accustomed to interacting with well-trained hospitality staff.
"We are not against the changes," he said. "We just want to make sure we are involved in how it's changing."
NEW GOLD RUSH
Every morning, Christopher Williams joins the traffic along the USA Parkway in northern Nevada's high desert on his way to an expanding cluster of data centers owned by Google, Switch, Tract and others in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.
The historic mining region was the site of a 19th-century gold rush, briefly earning Storey County the label of "the richest place on earth."
Williams, a 20-year-old with curly black hair and glasses, is part of the new rush, this time for high-paying data-center jobs.
He moved from northern California to Reno last year after struggling to get enough hours as a line cook earning $18.50 an hour. Now he’s making more than $22 an hour and works 45 to 60 hours a week.
"I might not fully agree with data centers being built everywhere, but they are helping a lot of people," he said. "If I don't take the job, somebody else will, and it's a lot of money left on the table."
For local officials, the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center has been a lifeline after a prolonged economic slump.
"We're finding that our economy is more stable than it used to be as a primarily gaming and tourism economy, and it's providing opportunities, especially for young people that want to stay," said County Commissioner Clay Mitchell.
According to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center has generated 850,000 work hours per month in 2026 – up from about the same number during all of 2022.
BABY AND THE BATHWATER
The Nevada Teamsters’ internal discussions have led it to endorse Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford for governor, Kinson said.
Ford, who is seeking to unseat Republican incumbent Governor Joe Lombardo, has proposed halting new data-center tax abatements and requiring developers to shield residents from higher energy costs, and also wants strong regulation protecting jobs from AI - the right balance to appeal to the spectrum of Teamsters unions, Kinson said.
Ford had consulted with the Teamsters before launching his data-center platform this summer and hosted his first town hall about the issue at the Teamsters Local 14.
Lombardo has championed data centers as a major economic driver, calling the industry a "new gold rush", but had been slower to embrace checks and balances on the industry, according to Kinson.
In September, Lombardo imposed new restrictions on some of the generous tax incentives that lured the industry to the state.
Lombardo did not respond to requests for comment.
The union’s influence tends to be significant. In 2025, union members accounted for about 13% of wage and salary workers in Nevada, compared to 10% nationwide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In other parts of the United States, the data-center issue has also been key to union endorsement decisions.
In Kansas, for example, Republican gubernatorial candidate Ty Masterson won backing from the state's largest transit and railroad union, as well as from a local chapter of the IBEW electrical workers union, after Democratic rival Cindy Holscher called for a moratorium on data-center development.
It marked the first time in more than 50 years that the Kansas transit union backed a Republican candidate for governor.
Sean McGarvey, president of North America's Building Trades Unions, said – just like in Nevada – there is a division in the wider labor community around AI and data centers. But banning new data centers, he said, will never get their support.
"We don't throw the baby out with the bathwater," he said. "This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to reindustrialize the country."
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici in Washington DC; additional reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles, and Elizabeth Mendez in Reno; editing by Richard Valdmanis )
