‘We have to grasp it’

Speaking in support of Composite 8 on great jobs yesterday (September 11), Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke warned of the challenges faced by automation, which he said “may be greater than any faced by our movement since the first industrial revolution, two centuries ago.”

 
“It took fifty years for the world to install the first million industrial robots,” he explained. “The second million will take just eight years.

 
“If unchecked the automation of work could lead to a third of decent jobs being lost by 2030.”

 
Burke said that while the composite mostly focused on zero hours contracts and the gig economy, he noted that “automation, in its scale and scope, is something different.”

 
“It is like electricity – you can’t un-invent it and we have to grasp it,” he argued. “From smart factories to the ‘internet of things’, we must negotiate technology agreements on our terms.

 
“That starts with an understanding that new technology is not in-and-of-itself a threat.

 
“The threat comes when we ask who controls it,” Burke added. “Whose interests does it serve?”

 
Burke highlighted Unite’s view on automation, one in which democratic oversight is front and centre in the adoption of digital technology at work.

 
“Industrially, this should extend to protections in collective bargaining agreements, limitations on the collection and use of big data, and the creation of policies to make the benefits of automation work for all, including a shorter working life, including a shorter working hours,” he explained.

 
“This may also include linking new technology to flexible working time and even job sharing, but with no loss of pay. Why can’t automation allow a new apprentice to job share with a retiring engineer and make sure vital skills are retained?”

 
He urged the UK government to take a leaf out the German government’s book by sitting down with trade unions to review how automation will change the world of work.

 
“Unite is committed to being at the forefront of this change, meeting it head on,” he said. “We have recognised there is no ‘one size fits all’ way to deal with this.”

 
Urging delegates to support the composite, he said unions should follow Unite’s lead as it puts automation “as the centre piece of a genuine, long-term manufacturing industrial strategy.”

The composite was passed.