There is one interesting wrinkle to the fact Apple and Google will be putting 4 million Teamsters out of work.
The public employee unions, the only area where unions are consolidating their power, are starting to take note that in just about any area of the economy that has even the slightest relationship to government, meaning all of it, they can make the case that the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees should be the bargaining agent.
From Reason:
There's a new addition to the ever-growing list of things we're supposed to fear. On top of ISIS, Ebola, and a Yellowstone super volcano, tack on automation. The wholesale replacement of large portions of America's workforce with robotic machinery is creating Chicken Little-like headlines.*Some of our posts from back then:
"As Robots Grow Smarter, American Workers Struggle to Keep Up," declares The New York Times; "Cheaper Robots Could Replace More Factory Workers," suggests Reuters. "What Jobs Will the Robots Take?" asks The Atlantic.
While these perceived dangers are admittedly more subtle than those that might accompany a rogue asteroid, they are worrying indeed. Automation might not wipe us out immediately, but it will almost certainly affect economies in Earth-shattering ways.
Forecasts differ on the specifics, but they generally point to automation being disruptive as far as traditional workplace roles are concerned. A recent Oxford University study put nearly half (47 percent) of all jobs at risk of replacement by automation in two decades. A Wired article puts the number at 70 percent by the end of this century.
Computers are getting smarter and stronger while employees, with their health insurance, pensions, and vacation time are becoming increasingly expensive. The writing is on the wall; plenty of jobs, at least as performed by humans, aren't long for this world.
Of course, no one knows exactly how automation will shake up the worker economy, but there will almost certainly be winners and losers. IT and creative jobs will proliferate while administrative, factory, and service employment will largely go the way of the dodo.
And for labor unions, that may very well mean that the bell tolls for thee. While unions have generally been in decline for some time, automation may prove to be the proverbial dagger through the heart.
Unions played a powerful role at one time, but with more people working from home independently and a global economy that requires 24-hour interaction, groups that demand to define when and where we can work may not be a model for modernity. In today's digitally connected world, any constraints on when people can work will almost certainly only hurt workers. The days of clocking in from 9 to 5 are all but in the rear view.
The biggest problem for labor, though, is that robots will reign first where unions tend to be strongest: manufacturing, shipping, and the service industries, and possibly even education. Anyone that has a single lingering doubt need only to Google "Kiva," the robotics company acquired by Amazon in 2012 that is increasingly responsible for its order fulfillment.
The automation revolution, it seems, has already begun; American GDP has increased by one-fifth since 2001 despite microscopic increases in labor hours and new jobs. The reason: robots. 2013 was a record sales year for the industrial variety....MORE
Can Silicon Valley Deal Makers Take the Credit For Obama’s Success? Or was it Wall Street?
President Obama Will Be a Good Friend to Wall Street
And more backlinks:
Obama Shelves Jobs-Credit Proposal
"America’s New Oligarchs—Fwd.us and Silicon Valley’s Shady 1 Percenters"
See also:
What Uber Hath Wrought: The Coming Digital Labor Movement
The very last thing the poobahs of Sand Hill Road want to see. They overwhelmingly prefer NO unions....
As Chicago Prepares an App For Taxis to Compete With Uber, Giant Union AFSCME is Organizing Cab Drivers
Can Silicon Valley Deal Makers Take the Credit For Obama’s Success? Or was it Wall Street?
Silicon Valley Freakshow: "Silicon Valley’s Long History of Government Codependence"
"President Obama Courts Silicon Valley’s New Digital Aristocracy"
The End Of Mass Car Ownership Is Coming Mr. Ford
Where it gets really, really interesting is when the Teamsters union weighs in on autonomous vehicles....
Construction: Here Come the Autonomous Bulldozers and 3-D Mapping Drones
Dear Teamsters, United Auto Workers: Google Is Trying To Crush Your Unions and Your Members (GOOG)
Here's how the Teamsters reacted to stress in 1934, the management guy heading for terra firma died almost instantly of a crushed occipital lobe:
