The Battle Over Robots at U.S. Ports Is On – WSJ

At the annual convention of the International Longshoremen s Association last year, two large screens played a TikTok video from a crane operator over the docks of Los Angeles. 

Aaaall of this, man, is all automated, he said, pointing toward acres of stacked containers stretching to the Pacific. He marveled at the automated vehicles driving amid the containers: No drivers in any of those machines&. They re no joke, man.

From the podium, Harold Daggett, the union s pugnacious leader, was having none of it. They say that s the future, he bellowed to the thousands of gathered workers. Over my dead body.

Tens of thousands of dockworkers last week returned to their jobs on East Coast ports after a three-day strike that threatened to snarl trade and hobble the economy. Workers won a 62% pay increase. But a much larger, thornier issue remains one that s playing out in other businesses as well, from factories to grocery stores to Hollywood: How much, and how quickly, are humans willing to concede to machines?

via www.wsj.com