Automation takes center stage in port negotiations

Dockworkers and longshoremen with the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) are underscoring a fear being felt across various industries: Will robots replace them at their jobs?  

The ILA's three-day strike and ongoing labor negotiations have brought the fight against automation technology back into the spotlight, though it remains unclear whether the union will be able to fend off the technology as it seemingly makes its way into several job sectors.  

The union reached a tentative agreement Thursday with the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), an association of companies that operate East and Gulf Coast ports, to suspend its strike, which began Tuesday, until Jan. 15 to give time for contract negotiations.

Thousands of workers at 14 major ports walked out on their jobs Tuesday, demanding better pay and a ban on the automation of gates, cranes and container-moving trucks at the union’s major East and Gulf Coast ports. A total of 36 ports were impacted by the strike. 

The ILA said USMX agreed to boost pay for port workers while negotiations are now focused on the automation of ports.

Automation is loosely defined as the use of technology to carry out tasks with less human involvement. At ports, this could look like swapping out manually operated diesel cranes with electric, remotely controlled cranes.  

The ILA’s old contract included a provision requiring the union’s permission for ports to add any automation, but the union is seeking “airtight language that there will be no automation or semi-automation,” ILA President Harold Daggett said.  

The union argues that technological advances could threaten the existence and value of union jobs, a concern that has persisted to varying degrees since the Industrial Revolution first introduced machines into the manufacturing space. 

“The ILA is steadfastly against any form of automation — full or semi — that replaces jobs or historical work functions. We will not accept the loss of work and livelihood for our members due to automation,” the union wrote Wednesday.  

The USMX said this week it offered the ILA an increase in compensation but wants to keep the current contractual language related to automation.  

As of last March, all 10 of the U.S.’s largest container ports use some automation technologies to process and handle some cargo, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.  

In these cases, automation can be used to load, unload and move heavy containers or feature in technology that optimizes and tracks container movements. 

To some port stakeholders, automation improves worker safety, resolves supply chain issues and increases efficiency.  

Meanwhile, some labor experts and unions believe workers have good reason to worry their jobs will be changed or eliminated in the wake of these technological advancements.  

Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, suggested workers are likely concerned about how automation “could either make their work redundant — meaning they would be redundant — or would dramatically impact their, what they see as their sort of ownership of this work and the integrity of that work.”  

Bruno compared the increase in automation to a “Fourth Industrial Revolution,” while noting there still is a time gap between the technology’s availability and installation in workplaces.  

Put into the larger context, just 63 ports of the estimated 1,300 container terminals around the globe implemented advanced automation by 2022, The Washington Post reported.  

And with that, implementation of automation at U.S. ports is still notably behind other countries, economists say.

The lag in automation installation does not appear to be quelling union concerns.  

ILA member Jack Pennington warned the technology push could be coming soon to other workplaces in a Monday blog post.  

“I got some news for those same naïve people that think [automation is] a good thing,” he said. “This is a trend and a reality that is taking place on every corner and all points between in our country today!”  

The past year saw heavy pushback on automation from other major unions. The Writers Guild of America, which represents film, television and radio writers, went on a months-long strike last year, in part demanding better protection against the unfettered use of artificial intelligence in the industry.  

Around the same time last year, the United Auto Workers went on strike over pay and benefits, but also over how automation could be contributing to job losses and plant closings in the automotive industry.  

The longshoremen’s last strike was in 1977, during which the union similarly called for boosted pay and guarantees the new technology at the time would not eliminate jobs. 

While concerns over technology have persisted for generations among union workers, Bruno predicted this is just the beginning of an even broader fight from unions over technology.  

“It will continue to spread, and when it does, at least in unionized settings, you can bet that workers are, that the union is going to bring some proposal around that topic, right around that issue, because it can be an existential threat to your work,” he told The Hill.  

Erik Brynjolfsson, the director of Stanford University's Digital Economy Lab, emphasized America’s ports are “dramatically under automated,” arguing the increase could stand to benefit workers, consumers and companies.  

“Automation creates value. It makes the pie bigger. And in theory that should be, there should be room for a win-win there,” he told The Hill. “Mathematically, it's possible to do that when the pie gets bigger, that means there's more surplus around.” 

“I find it very short-sighted of the dockworkers, or any workers, to be pushing against automation if you can instead, find a way that the gains get shared,” he continued. “I would hope that there's an opportunity there to strike an agreement where there is a lot more automation, not less automation and that some of the benefits get shared with the dockworkers and others.” 

He argued it is not widely understood that “when things get more productive, that doesn’t necessarily lead to less work, often that leads to more work.”  

Efforts dating back to the Industrial Revolution to stop automation have often been unsuccessful, Brynjolfsson said.  

“The dockworkers are a bit of an exception, but by and large, American workers have used the most modern technologies and have been the most productive in the world,” he said. “And that means learning new skills, and that means that some jobs become grown in demand, other jobs shrink in demand, but that dynamism, combined with technology, is the key to higher living standards for workers and for consumers.”  

Margaret Kidd, program director and associate professor of supply chain logistics at the University of Houston, called the automation issue "the big elephant in the room." 

"What most Americans don't realize is that American exceptionalism does not exist in our port system. Our infrastructure is antiquated. Our use of automation and technology is antiquated," said Kidd, drawing comparisons to European ports, which have embraced automation 

"The ILA needs to be looking at a long-term vision. There's no industry — journalism, academia, manufacturing — that hasn't been changed by technology,” she added.  

The Hill’s Taylor Giorno contributed.