Mapping worker-led AI governance in the global cultural industries

Between 2022 and early 2026, hundreds of cultural workers’ organizations around the world have mobilized in response to generative AI. From the Hollywood strikes of 2023 to voice actors’ protests in Mexico City, from pan-European game workers’ declarations to the first workers’ appendix to Brazil’s national AI bill, these mobilizations are reshaping how AI is deployed across cultural industries. This article presents a tracker of worker-led AI governance, documenting 142 worker organizations in 34 countries across eight cultural sectors. The tracker’s evidence suggests that collective bargaining is one of eight repertoires documented in the field, and not the most frequent; that most organizations target the state rather than employers or AI companies; that workers’ claims cluster around compensation, consent and copyright, with unauthorized training on creative output as the most cited harm; and that voice acting, the sector with most presence of Majority World, mobilizes a cultural-identity register that tracks the sector’s position in global screen value chains.