10月28日：在雷诺以东内华达州沙漠的10万多英亩土地上，全球最大的数据中心集群之一正在形成，为成千上万名正在建设这些中心的电工、管道工和其他工会技术工人提供了数年的工作机会。
Oct 28 : 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.
在东南方向约400英里处，沿着标志性的拉斯维加斯大道，由这些数据中心提供动力的人工智能技术正在造成冲击：自动驾驶的Zoox和Waymo车辆正在取代人类驾驶的出租车和代客泊车服务；赌场楼层的调酒师正被机器人取代；MGM的大型呼叫中心正在裁减数百个岗位。
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.
这种分屏景象正在挑战内华达州卡车司机工会，这是一个在政治上极具影响力的地方工会网络，代表建筑、运输和酒店业的3万名工人，其中许多人将在11月3日的选举中投票。一些人希望看到新的数据中心建设停止或放缓。另一些人则将这场繁荣视为一份礼物。
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.
“我的工作是代表我们所有的工会，”内华达州卡车司机工会政治总监罗斯·金森说，并补充称该组织已于4月启动了一个程序，以在11月大选前寻找统一立场。
"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.
“这是一个对建筑行业非常、非常重要的问题，它提供了大量工作，并为很多人创造了良好的机会。”但他表示，他一直在鼓励成员考虑另一面：“这对我们的工作有什么影响？”内华达州工会的灵魂拷问反映了全国范围内关于监管是否应在相互冲突的就业毁灭与创造预测中放缓人工智能发展的辩论——以及人工智能最终是会造福人类还是危害人类。这很可能会影响内华达州11月3日的投票。
"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.
金森说，在大选前，内华达州卡车司机工会采访了来自两党的180多名政治候选人。那些不支持强有力的工人保护措施，或寻求彻底禁止新建数据中心的人，不太可能获得工会的支持。“这是政客们必须小心翼翼穿越的政治雷区，”金森说。
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.
内华达州在2028年总统大选中也将扮演重要角色，作为民主党初选日程中仅次于南卡罗来纳州的第二个州。
Nevada will also play a significant role in the 2028 presidential elections as the second state in the Democratic primary schedule behind South Carolina.
机器人调酒师 在拉斯维加斯大道附近的一条郊区街道上，63岁的拉里·戈德芬格和一群他开玩笑称为“行尸走肉”的卡车司机工会会员，顶着沙漠酷热，手持记事板挨家挨户敲门。他们在为相信能保护城市工人免受人工智能导致失业之苦的候选人拉票。
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.
戈德芬格在大道上一些最具标志性的赌场做了近三十年代客泊车，又在拉斯维加斯的酒店业干了十年——他现在担心，随着人工智能自动化接管从礼宾服务到调酒的一切工作，这些岗位将枯竭。
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.
“我养家糊口，靠这行过上了好日子，但我感觉那些三十来岁的小伙子们没法再这么干了，”他戴着卡车司机工会的棒球帽遮挡内华达的烈日，说道。
"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.
根据RCG Economics的分析，到2035年，人工智能和自动化可能使南内华达多达9.2万个酒店业岗位面临风险，约占该劳动力的三分之一。
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.
卡车司机工会986地方分会已因人工智能自动化流失了赌场呼叫中心员工，而出租车司机和代客泊车员则面临Waymo和Zoox扩大自动驾驶车队带来的压力。机器人调酒师和触屏酒店自助入住也日益普及。
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.
金森说，美高梅国际酒店集团去年裁掉了约200名呼叫中心员工。在最近一次投资者电话会上，美高梅国际首席财务官乔纳森·霍尔亚德表示，约80%的客人互动“现在通过人工智能/数字平台进行”。美高梅拒绝就此置评，但引导路透社关注其2023年与烹饪工会成员达成的劳工合同。该合同承诺提前通知因人工智能导致的裁员，并为受影响员工提供医疗保健和遣散费。
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 per cent 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.
拉斯维加斯经济对繁荣、衰退和技术变革并不陌生。但RCG Economics首席经济学家约翰·雷斯特雷波表示，它如何应对人工智能时代将产生巨大后果。
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.
“如果他们利用这些工具仅仅进行大规模岗位置换，那将不是好事，”他说。
"If they use those tools to just do massive job displacement, that's not going to be good," he said.
戈德芬格表示，他担心人工智能在拉斯维加斯的兴起不仅会让这座城市失去大量工作岗位，最终还会损害商业，因为这会让习惯与训练有素的酒店服务人员互动的游客感到不那么受欢迎。
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.
“我们并不反对变革，”他说。“我们只是希望确保我们能参与到变革的过程中。” 新淘金热 每天清晨，克里斯托弗·威廉姆斯加入内华达州北部高沙漠USA Parkway上的车流，前往塔霍-雷诺工业中心，那里聚集着谷歌、Switch、Tract等公司不断扩建的数据中心集群。
"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.
这片历史悠久的矿区曾是19世纪淘金热的发生地，曾短暂让斯托里县获得“地球上最富有的地方”称号。留着卷曲黑发、戴着眼镜的20岁青年威廉姆斯，正参与着这场新的淘金热，这次淘的是高薪数据中心工作。
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.
去年，他在北加州作为一名厨房帮工时薪18.50美元却难以获得足够工时，于是搬到了雷诺。现在他时薪超过22美元，每周工作45到60小时。
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.
“我可能不完全赞同到处建设数据中心，但它们确实帮了很多人，”他说。“如果我不接这份工作，别人会接，那可是留在桌面上的一大笔钱。” 对于当地官员来说，塔霍-雷诺工业中心在长期经济低迷后成了一条生命线。
"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.
“我们发现，我们的经济比过去主要依赖博彩和旅游业时更稳定了，它提供了机会，特别是让想留在这里的年轻人有了机会，”县专员克莱·米切尔说。
"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.
据国际电气工人兄弟会称，塔霍雷诺工业中心在2026年每月产生85万工时，而2022年全年约为同样的数字。
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.
“婴儿与洗澡水”：金森表示，内华达州卡车司机工会的内部讨论促使其支持民主党总检察长亚伦·福特竞选州长。
BABY AND THE BATHWATER The Nevada Teamsters’ internal discussions have led it to endorse Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford for governor, Kinson said.
福特正寻求击败共和党现任州长乔·隆巴多，他提议停止新的数据中心税收减免，并要求开发商保护居民免受更高的能源成本影响，同时还希望制定强有力的监管措施以保护就业免受人工智能冲击——金森表示，这是能够吸引卡车司机工会各分会不同群体的恰当平衡。
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.
福特在今年夏天推出其数据中心政纲之前曾与卡车司机工会协商，并在卡车司机工会第14分会举办了关于该问题的首次市政厅会议。
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.
金森表示，隆巴多一直将数据中心作为主要经济驱动力加以推崇，称该行业是一场“新淘金热”，但在对该行业实施制衡方面行动较慢。
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.
9月，隆巴多对吸引该行业来到该州的部分慷慨税收优惠实施了新的限制。隆巴多未回应置评请求。
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.
工会的影响力往往举足轻重。根据美国劳工统计局的数据，2025年，工会成员约占内华达州工薪劳动者的13%，而全国这一比例为10%。
The union’s influence tends to be significant. In 2025, union members accounted for about 13 per cent of wage and salary workers in Nevada, compared to 10 per cent nationwide, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
在美国其他地区，数据中心问题也一直是工会背书决定的关键因素。
In other parts of the United States, the data-center issue has also been key to union endorsement decisions.
例如在堪萨斯州，共和党州长候选人泰·马斯特森在民主党对手辛迪·霍尔舍呼吁暂停数据中心开发后，赢得了该州最大的交通和铁路工会以及国际电气工人兄弟会当地分会的支持。这是50多年来堪萨斯州交通工会首次支持共和党州长候选人。
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.
北美建筑行业工会主席肖恩·麦加维表示，就像在内华达州一样，整个劳工界在人工智能和数据中心问题上存在分歧。但他表示，禁止新建数据中心永远不会得到他们的支持。
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.
“我们不会把孩子和洗澡水一起倒掉，”他说，“这是重振国家工业化的千载难逢的机会之一。”
"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."