Could Automation Be Labor Unions’ Death Knell?
26th April 2015
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.
Labor unions are predicated on a situation where workers have no economic leverage because they are in jobs that anybody who is literate and numerate and has an above-room-temperature IQ can do, so the supply always vastly exceeds the demand. Unions attempt to compensate for a lack of economic power by involving political power, be it strikes, picketing, thug violence, or governmental capture. Robots don’t vote and they always do what they’re told; no workers to organize, no union. It’s just that simple.
Of course, unions will attempt to ‘organize’ the workers who are left, but it’s questionable how effective that would be. Despite the attempts by tech firms to import cheap coders from overseas, most ‘knowledge workers’ don’t see themselves and commodity labor — somebody can’t just walk in off the street and after a week’s training do a web site or a smartphone app (although plenty have tried). Thus unions have focused on the remaining commodity labor ares, such as services, government employees, and (sadly, but it’s true) education. It will be interesting to see how long that long retreat can be maintained.