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Fears of employee displacement as Amazon brings robots into warehouses
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
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Technology
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The idea that Amazon will not replace every job they can regardless of unionization status is preposterous.
If they can automate the job, they already have every incentive to do so. This is not going to crack the whip.
Workers should unionize, period. The company is coming for them either way.
You have two numbers -- the expected value of the automated system, and the expected value of the human workforce. There is going to be someome estimating what the return is from each. If the automated one is a better return, that is the one that they will go with.
If they estimate strikes on the part of the human workforce, that will tend to make the human workforce less-favorable than it otherwise would be relative to the automated system.
The human number is ALREADY vastly higher than the non-human number.
The only reason Amazon hasn't replaced them yet is that the technology has not been developed. Every dollar left on the table by workers right now will never be recouped.