Port issue “is artificial intelligence”
A shipping site says that the issue causing the strike/lockout at the Port of Montreal is that the employer wants to bring in automation using artificial intelligence, while the union says this will cut about half the positions at the port. A union spokesman says “It’s time to stop the machines from taking our jobs.”
Paul 11:45 on 2024-11-14 Permalink
I saw Terminator 2.
I support them!
Kate 12:03 on 2024-11-14 Permalink
In 1831, my several-times-great-uncle Samuel Macey was convicted of participating in an action to destroy threshing machines on a farm in Wiltshire, England. He was sentenced to be transported to Tasmania. But it was the same fight.
In 1978, workers at the Montreal Star went on strike for months in response to the introduction of computerized phototypesetting. The strike lasted eight months and the paper closed down not long afterwards. Same fight.
There are so many examples. I’ve only mentioned two that I know of. The problem is that every time, the technical improvements benefit the owner class, and it’s the workers who get shafted.
When I was young, there was a lot of sunny talk about how technology would bring us more leisure. That depends, of course, on how you define us.
su 12:04 on 2024-11-14 Permalink
Odd how that issue has received no mention on our local and national news.
Last night it was all about the strike’s effects on GDP growth, supply chains, and the upcoming shopping season.
Kate 12:07 on 2024-11-14 Permalink
That’s why I found the World Cargo News item interesting, su.
Joey 12:55 on 2024-11-14 Permalink
They covered this in The Wire – season two, I think. They had a team present the automation system implemented in Rotterdam to the union leadership in Baltimore. I suspect you can imagine the look on their faces as they watched the containers unload themselves…
su 12:57 on 2024-11-14 Permalink
The port terminals have been privatised since the advent of the push toward global growth a few decades ago. The growing demands for public and private investment in ports, precipitated by the growth in world trade, and the limited abilities of governments to meet these needs because of competing investment priorities, were key factors. Thus, while few were willing to go as far as the UK in the total privatization of ports, many countries were willing to consider awarding concessions as an intermediate form of privatization, leading to various forms of public-private partnerships.
saintlaurent 13:15 on 2024-11-14 Permalink
The Amalgamated Union of Blacksmiths, Switchboard & Telegraph Operators, Bank Tellers, Horse Collar Artisans and Loom Weavers is ready to stand in solidarity with the longshoremen.
Chris 12:58 on 2024-11-15 Permalink
>The problem is that every time, the technical improvements benefit the owner class…
Do you mean exclusively? Disproportionally?
The average man has benefited plenty too. Would you actually prefer to live in a world without threshing machines and computerized phototypesetting? Maybe you would, but I doubt most would.