By: Jared Murphy, SFU Student
In the 20th century, economist John Keynes correctly predicted that automation in the industrial sector would continue expanding and threatening jobs, which we’re currently seeing in North America. In some ways, Canada’s shift towards automation parallels the transition towards cleaner energy. Many labour intensive jobs are being automated away or changed dramatically. Without effective transition strategies, this hurts the working class: 10.6% of whom face a high risk of automation-related job transformation.
The Canadian government must act now, to offer legitimate solutions that actually benefit the working class. Canada needs to develop strategies that consider and support those with vulnerable jobs. We see this with the Just Transition advisory body, which aims to support displaced oil and gas workers by centering their voices, offering economic opportunities, and “minimizing the impact of labour market transitions.” Little help is offered for those displaced or threatened by automation.
In one of many examples, those with power and capital have set their sights on those with some of the most fragile futures in the market: the transport industry. With self-driving trucks threatening the job that employs 5% of Canadians, where do they turn? While there are many hand-wavey responses to those skeptical of self-driving trucks like “it’s safer,” and “it’s more efficient,” I’m proposing we take these ideas about automation and look at them not through the lens of economics, but of humanity. I honestly don’t care how safe the cars are marketed to be — they’ve been proven unsafe on multiple occasions. I care about what rapid automation will do to our society, and more importantly, who it will leave behind.
People lose their financial stability in careless market transitions. You can’t shove industrial workers with their own skill sets into the same box as the laptop class of professional email senders. What will a transition like this do to Canadian society? With 10.6% of the labour force facing job loss or transformation from automation, our government needs to act swiftly to prevent further unemployment and financial insecurity. Livelihoods are at stake, and the social outcomes of a massive shift like this can’t be justified solely by corporate and national economic growth.
Recently, Freshii was caught up in a scandal over people finding out they were outsourcing their cashier jobs to Nicaraguan workers for $3.75/hour. In one Global News article, the blame is shifted from the Freshii Board of Directors, and onto Canadian’s backs. According to them, virtual cashiers help the industry “grapple with its biggest crisis ever: staffing shortages.”
This example is particularly concerning, since automation should serve to benefit workers and consumers rather than corporate profits. Instead of recklessly automating jobs on a whim, businesses should work to address the reasons for staffing shortages, some of which include low wages and poor COVID-19 strategies.
Technology accelerates at an exponential rate. People don’t. As capital continues to barrel over workers left and right, will we wake up one day in the soon prophesied Universal Basic Income (UBI) utopia? Or, will what has happened for the last two hundred years continue: stagnant wages, higher cognitive demand, less free time, and higher wealth inequality? For these reasons, I’m not sure UBI is just around the corner. If we can take a step back, maybe the current growth by any means function of capitalism needs to be re-evaluated, and shifted towards a market that prioritizes workers’ autonomy and the right to a living wage.
