Congrats to the California unions. They are working hard to END union jobs in California. Even better, they are working to send union jobs to other States, where workers are not forced to pay bribes in order to work.
“Supermarket technology has reduced the numbers of workers needed to process checkouts, and SB 1446 aims to protect unionized jobs by limiting use of self-service kiosks and setting specific staffing levels. It also requires grocers and other retailers to give 60-day notice before introducing new technology, such as “self-checkout robotics, wearable sensors, and scanners that eliminate, automate, or electronically monitor the core job functions of an employee.”
The legislation’s author, Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, a Los Angeles Democrat and former union organizer, and the bill’s sponsors contended during an online news conference Wednesday that it’s needed to protect the safety of employees from thieves and aggressive customers, but it’s clearly aimed at protecting store workers from being replaced with machines.”
Next the California unions will ban the use of cars, so we can make more buggies. When you force wages and benefits too high, you quicken the pace of technology. When you demand union only workers, the consumer gets higher costs for food and services. This is called a death spiral. Now, unions workers are being killed off—not by businesses, but by the unions that force them to pay dues and then lose their jobs.
Unions try to protect jobs in California with legislation to limit use of digital technology
by Dan Walters, CalMatters,, 8/15/24 https://calmatters.org/commentary/2024/08/unions-protect-jobs-technology-legislation/
When the industrial revolution erupted in 18th century Britain — replacing handwork with machinery in the manufacture of goods — many of the affected textile workers responded by attacking and disabling the machines.
The rebels became known as Luddites, so named for “General Ned Ludd” or “King Ludd,” a mythical figure living in Sherwood Forest. In the more than 200 years since, the moniker has been applied to anyone who resists introduction of new technology, particularly in the workplace.
Over the last half-century digital technology has driven a new industrial revolution, completely changing the nature of work as it destroyed old economic sectors and created new ones.
When I began my career in journalism 64 years ago, I and other reporters wrote our stories on paper, using cast iron Underwood typewriters, after which the “copy” was read and sometimes altered by an editor with a lead pencil. It was then set in metallic type by a composing room worker and transformed into a metallic printing plate by other workers who installed it on an immense printing press to produce newspapers.
Today I’m writing this column on a Hewlett Packard computer. Virtually all the information being cited in the column was gathered from online sources, including details of a bill from the Legislature’s website and videos from CalMatters’ Digital Democracy archives.
When I’m finished, the column moves electronically to an editor using the same digital technology and the finished product then is electronically published on the Internet. CalMatters exists because of technology, while newspapers still producing paper copies are struggling due to competition for advertising from digital rivals.
California has played the seminal role in the new technological revolution, but it’s also a center of resistance.
The bill to which I referred earlier is Senate Bill 1446, which sailed through the Senate earlier this year but is now enmeshed in a clash between labor unions and retailers, particularly grocers, in the Assembly.
In recent years, supermarket operators have introduced kiosks in which customers can check out themselves without lining up to have a clerk physically process the contents of their carts.
In years past, checkout clerks would have to know the price of each item, if it wasn’t marked, or refer to a paper price list. Technology, in the form of barcodes, sped up checkouts by cashiers, but also allows customers to scan their own items and pay with credit cards.
Some stores have experimented with having scanners determine total purchases without processing individual items and/or identifying customers by scanning their hands and linking them to a pre-designated credit card.
Supermarket technology has reduced the numbers of workers needed to process checkouts, and SB 1446 aims to protect unionized jobs by limiting use of self-service kiosks and setting specific staffing levels. It also requires grocers and other retailers to give 60-day notice before introducing new technology, such as “self-checkout robotics, wearable sensors, and scanners that eliminate, automate, or electronically monitor the core job functions of an employee.”
The legislation’s author, Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, a Los Angeles Democrat and former union organizer, and the bill’s sponsors contended during an online news conference Wednesday that it’s needed to protect the safety of employees from thieves and aggressive customers, but it’s clearly aimed at protecting store workers from being replaced with machines.
Grocers, meanwhile, say the legislation would limit customer choices and mandate operational costs that would be reflected in grocery prices.
It’s not the first time such legislation has surfaced. For instance, recent appropriations for upgrading port facilities have contained prohibitions on installing labor-saving automation. The advent of artificial intelligence will likely lead to more such clashes.
Luddism is apparently not confined to 18th century Britain’s textile industry.
Standing in the way of the evolution of technology is no different than the unions standing in the way of improving how and what children are taught in the public school system. Look where that got California. Read “Personal Opinions of One Common Man” available online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Walmart.