Tag: academic

Southern rail dispute reflects workers’ growing fears about rise of automation

Southern rail dispute reflects workers’ growing fears about rise of automation

Trains with a guard become driver-only trains, which then become driverless trains. That’s the fear underlying Aslef’s dispute with Southern railways and accounts for the rearguard action to prevent further job losses across the rail industry.

It’s not the only reason for the dispute. There is also scorn for Southern’s management, which has attacked drivers’ basic terms and conditions, and there is anger at transport secretary Chris Grayling’s anti-union stance. But, at its heart, the dispute is over the status and even the very existence of the job of train driver, which has been around for nigh on 200 years.

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CNN Host’s Attempt to Explain the U.S. Economy Was So Bad I Started Yelling at the TV

CNN Host's Attempt to Explain the U.S. Economy Was So Bad I Started Yelling at the TV

Young technician checking solar panels on factory roof Photo Credit: zstock/Shutterstock Honestly, I don’t usually talk back to the TV. But I couldn’t contain myself during Poppy Harlow’s December 10 interview with John Feltner, the United Steelworkers vice president of the Rexnord local union where 300 jobs are moving from Indianapolis to Mexico.

In discussing the move, Harlow twice resorted to the much repeated trope that the loss of American manufacturing jobs is really about automation and technology.

HARLOW: What is the number-one thing you would like to see the incoming administration do that you think will help people in […]

Beyond the Factory Floor: The Changing Work Force

Beyond the Factory Floor: The Changing Work Force

The other day, I looked into a mirror and suddenly realized that my mother was looking back.

It sneaks up on you.

Most of us don’t notice the day-to-day changes in ourselves, or our environments, unless something triggers that recognition. That is especially true of the inexorable increase in automation–and it matters, because it is automation, far more than trade, that has eliminated so many American jobs. And that automation isn’t limited to spiffy robots on a factory floor; it is all around us.When I first started to drive, gas station attendants pumped my gas and cleaned my windshield. These days, […]

Why Am I Yelling At CNN’s Poppy Harlow?

Why Am I Yelling At CNN’s Poppy Harlow?

Honestly, I don’t usually talk back to the TV. But I couldn’t contain myself during Poppy Harlow’s December 10 interview with John Feltner, the United Steelworkers vice president of the Rexnord local union where 300 jobs are moving from Indianapolis to Mexico.

In discussing the move, Ms. Harlow twice resorted to the much repeated trope that the loss of American manufacturing jobs is really about automation and technology.

HARLOW: …. What would you ― what is the number-one thing you would like to see the incoming administration do that you think will help people in your situation? Because, you know, […]

The Pros and Cons of Robot Managers

The Pros and Cons of Robot Managers

How would you feel working for a robot? Although the idea may sound far-fetched, not least because the automation of jobs is usually discussed vis-à-vis unskilled labor rather than management-level positions, it is actually more feasible than most people think. Consider some of the main tasks of managers: e.g., using data to evaluate problems, making better decisions than the team, monitoring team members’ performance, setting relevant goals, and providing accurate feedback. Not only is technology capable of rivaling humans on these core management tasks, it is already playing a pivotal role in helping humans to more effectively accomplish these […]

Economists Doubt the U.S. Can Regain Many of the Factory Jobs Lost in Recent Decades

Economists Doubt the U.S. Can Regain Many of the Factory Jobs Lost in Recent Decades

An employee places shirts ready for shipment in plastic bags at the 5 Thread facility… Pulling off a renaissance in U.S. manufacturing employment will be extraordinarily tough.

After hitting a record of nearly 20 million in 1979, the number of American factory workers has plunged during each of the last five recessions and each time has never recovered. Today, 12.3 million people are employed in U.S. factories, a loss of nearly eight million jobs.

Forecasters in The Wall Street Journal’s monthly survey of economists doubt the numbers of bygone years can be restored. They estimate the U.S. will add about 7,000 […]

How to support yourself after the robot revolution

How to support yourself after the robot revolution

Steve Gardner

Here’s a startling prediction: if current labor trends continue, one out of three American men, ages 25-54, will be out of work by mid-century.

That’s what former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers expects. “Job destruction caused by technology is not a futuristic concern,” Summers wrote this fall. “It is something we have been living with for two generations.”Contract jobs, gig work and robots have all made work more precarious. Silicon Valley pioneered many of the changes, and now some tech entrepreneurs believe they have a solution to the economic anxiety they’ve helped create.Put bluntly, it’s free money. […]

Amazon’s Grocery Would Eliminate Thousands Of Jobs

Amazon's Grocery Would Eliminate Thousands Of Jobs

Employees stand outside the new Amazon Go grocery store in Seattle, Washington, U.S., on Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016. Amazon.com Inc. unveiled technology that will let shoppers grab groceries without having to scan and pay for them — in one stroke eliminating the checkout line. Photographer: David Ryder/Bloomberg There’s nothing wrong with profit or efficiency. If you’re in business, you probably have multiple reasons, but profit is a big one. Profit is how you pay yourself. It enables a company to offer more employment opportunities for more people. Investors see the results of profit, either as higher stock prices or […]

Is India prepared for ‘fourth industrial revolution’?

Is India prepared for ‘fourth industrial revolution’?

The disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, automation and Internet of Things (IoT) have become an integral part of our everyday lives. The disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, automation and Internet of Things (IoT) have become an integral part of our everyday lives. They will, in the next two decades, create digital factories and completely transform the IT service business models, which will have a huge impact on the job market.

The rise of these technologies is being called the fourth industrial revolution, which raises concerns over job security as many people, in the past, […]

Automation, Jobs And The New Techno-Pessimism

Automation, Jobs And The New Techno-Pessimism

A strange vision is gaining traction in the developed world: a vision of a future economy so dramatically changed by technology that it is beyond recognition. This is not the apocalyptic prophecy of a real-world Skynet, turning computerised gadgets and artificial intelligence systems against the human population, but a growing fear of automation replacing people in an increasingly robotised world of work.

While it is plain to see how machines have improved humanity’s lot in the past despite putting their overlords out of work, some argue that this time, it is different. No doubt, sophisticated IT and AI are likely […]