Unions Fight To Keep Jobs in Tech Age
C H I C A G O, Oct. 1 -- Georgetown University Professor Douglas McCabe digested the morning's news about the West Coast dockworkers' labor dispute and sighed.
"This issue has been going on for 6,000 years," he said. "Since the days of the pick and shovel, unions have tended to resist technological change."
The argument between the longshoremen and the maritime companies that employ them has to do with technology, just as in so many other labor negotiations these days. The issue is simple: Management wants technology to bring down labor costs. And labor wants to make sure that the advance of technology does not leave workers jobless.
"We need to bring these ports into the 21st century," said Steve Sugarman of the Pacific Maritime Association. "That's the core of the issue in these talks."
As an example, Sugarman said shippers still have to rely on chalkboards in many ports because unions have opposed the introduction of computers. It slows down the process, he said, and hurts all sides.
But Dexter Cato, a dockworker from San Francisco, said management has basically ignored the worker in the rush to save money. "We do 110 percent of the work for these companies, and they're not even paying attention to us," he said.
A Robot Can Do the Jobs of 10 Workers
There is no question that technology has made the workplace safer and more efficient. Today a robot can do the jobs of 10 workers. Steel mills are less dangerous. Sorting machines have made the movement of goods more efficient. New cars are turned out in much quicker fashion — all because of technological advances.
Organized labor understands that, but, like Cato, feels left out of the discussion.
"We ought to have a say in [the use of technologies]," said Ron Blackwell of the AFL-CIO. "We ought be able to shape whether they are going to be technologies that create jobs and help everyone."
Experts agree the integration may be difficult for labor.
"The problem specifically for organized labor in the United States is whether they can successfully unionize all of the employees at these newly emerging companies. And to date, their success ratio has been very small," said McCabe.
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