this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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cringe
Fight automation fallout, not automation itself. I'm not gonna suddenly throw my electric drill away at work and twist every screw by hand.
You know, like how automation has enabled corporations to rake in more and more profit while essentially paying workers the same.
In and of itself, automation hasn't done that.
Forgetting the importance of unions has done that.
Letting unions leaders sacrifice the rights of junior members to enshrine the rights of the senior members has done that. Speaking of that: fuck the leadership of the UFCW. You double crossing snake ass motherfuckers.
Letting union leaders and government officials get cozy trips courtesy of companies has done that.
UFCW needs more grassroots activist members who will fight for the contracts they have and to rally blocs against the bullshit two-tier, no raise crap they push after every negotiation.
I fight automation fallout by abusing the self checkout lane as much as I can.
Sorry, you replaced an employee with an untrained, unpaid, stranger with no incentive to do the job right. Woops, did I just ring another PS5 up as yellow onions?
I mean if you're not positive that workers will reap the benefits of it it makes sense to resist. The poster is more specific: it says to fight the fallout of automation, less pay and more work for a smaller group of people. The Luddites are a joke to a lot of people these days but they correctly identified that automation was making their jobs worse and making everyone who did them more miserable.
Given how automation has impacted other communities in this country (take a trip through coal country some time) I think it's wise to be skeptical. I'd love to live in a world where we don't have to work because it's all automated and I can go paint landscapes or whatever, but I don't think that's likely to happen.