The Philadelphia Inquirer
More money is always good, but itâs clear now that wages were never the most critical issue leading to the now-suspended three-day strike by the International Longshoremenâs Association. The ILAâs bigger concern is that automation being allowed at Americaâs ports will lead to most of the union membersâ jobs becoming obsolete.
The ILA has agreed to a tentative pact on wages (a 62% increase over six years), which sent its 45,000 members back to work under the current contract, but negotiations on automation will resume Jan. 15. The agreement came after President Joe Biden pressed both sides to reach a deal to end the unionâs first full strike since 1977.
The upcoming talks are likely to be just as contentious so long as ILA leaders continue to ignore that U.S. ports only want to do what their counterparts in Asia and Europe have already done. Harold Daggett, the ILAâs 78-year-old president, says he doesnât want dockworkers to suffer the same fate as store cashiers. âMachines got to stop,â he said. âWhat good is it if youâre going to put people out of work?â
Itâs a valid question, one that pertains to far more than the workers involved in loading and unloading cargo ships. Thousands of blacksmiths lost their livelihood after cars were invented, but a Brookings Institution study says advanced robotics and artificial intelligence will eliminate millions of jobs for vehicle drivers, retail and health-care workers, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals.
Isnât that something the nation should be preparing for? Technologyâs impact on Americaâs workforce is a longer-range problem that should be figured out sooner rather than later.
Many blacksmiths became auto mechanics by adding the skills needed to service and repair cars to their repertoire. Similarly, dockworkers and others likely to lose their jobs to automation will need to learn new skills to remain employed. Instead of trying to prevent the inevitable, their unions should argue for programs that will train their members for different jobs being created by evolving technology.
Look at Amazon, for example. It has increased job security with programs such as its Machine Learning University, which has taught thousands of employees coding and other technological skills. Its mechatronics and robotics apprenticeship teaches its employees the computer skills needed to move into technical maintenance jobs.
A Harvard Business Review analysis says these types of reskilling initiatives allow companies to build talent internally and fill skills gaps that help those firms beat their competitors in achieving strategic objectives.
Itâs understandable to fear that no matter what new skills a person acquires, some technological innovation will one day do the work better and faster. But that doesnât mean you have to join the unemployed.
Technology billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have both suggested a universal basic income for people who lose their jobs to technology. Zuckerberg said Alaskaâs Permanent Fund Dividend, which provides annual grants to residents from the stateâs oil revenue, would be a novel approach that âcomes from conservative principles of smaller government, rather than progressive principles of a larger safety net.â Of course, divesting the oil industry of its federal tax breaks could also help fund the larger safety net Zuckerberg dismisses.
Meanwhile, as technology both eliminates and creates new jobs, workers must be retrained to perform different tasks. Hereâs hoping that when the longshoremen and port operators resume contract negotiations in January, they donât get caught up in haggling over how much AI can be used to handle cargo.
