The union also sought limits on automation at ports. The joint statement only mentions wages.
So I’m guessing – though we’ll see what further articles talk about – that they probably got concessions on wages, but not on automation.
There will be a commission to negotiate automation. Right now they will have time to negotiate until January 15th.
I hope they get huge pay raises and job security, but I can’t support their anti-automation stance. This generation of longshoremen will likely be the last - soon it will all be robot technicians.
I don’t think that it’ll go away. I think that there will be a longshoreman.
It’ll just do something different than in 2024.
Same way a longshoreman a hundred years ago, pre-containerization, would have been wrestling boxes around instead of moving containers on a crane.
Full automation in 6 years?
I hope they get a re-education/professional training stipend
That depends on how much everything else is automated by then
I feel like port work will be easier to automate than many other industries, it’s a hectic but very controlled environment
There are many totally automated ports outside the US, unions have fought to keep the US in the stone age as far as ports are concerned. The first automated port was opened in 93.
Good. It’s not like the extra margin from eliminating this labor would be passed down to the rest of us. This way the money goes into labor and a significant chunk from this labor to the rest of us, through taxes and spending. Those jobs should be automated when no union labor wants to do them anymore.
Fighting against progress is always wrong.
Progress towards what?
And for whom?
I was thinking of other industries. If we automate away all or most of the jobs no amount of re-training will help.
And the capital gathered through this automation won’t redistribute itself to keep people fed without a fight.