Thankfully, dockworkers agreed to suspend the strike just three days later, with their current contract extended until Jan. 15, 2025, as negotiations continue. On wages, both sides met in the middle, agreeing to a 62 percent wage hike. So that, at least, is settled. But, the union said it would return to the bargaining table “to negotiate all other outstanding issues.”

High on the list of those issues is the use of automation in the ports and its impact on jobs. At ports, automation can take the form of driverless vehicles to shuttle containers around the wharf, cranes to stack boxes without much human intervention, and “automated gates” to process trucks. The latter uses RFID, machine vision and other technologies to document trucks and cargo entering and exiting a port. The gates automatically capture data on the driver, truck, trailer and containers. They then automatically tell drivers where to go to pick up or drop off their loads.

Proponents of the technology say that it improves traffic flow, decreases congestion, and reduces emissions from idling vehicles. The ILA complains that the technology reduces the need for gate clerks.

Indeed, talks between the ILA and port operators broke off in June after the union discovered a gate at a port in Mobile, AL, that was using technology to process trucks automatically without the involvement of dockworkers. The ILA argued that use of the gate violated its contract, which permits “semi-automated” technology, but not equipment “devoid of human interaction.” Port operators say “modernization”—in other words, automation—is necessary to ensure the efficient flow of cargo.

Automation vs. jobs. It’s an age-old debate that’s been raging since the Luddite movement in the UK in the early 19th century. I remember chatting once with a long-time manufacturing guy who used to be a manager at a GM assembly plant in the early ’70s. He recalled how union workers would sabotage robots at the plant, fearing that the machines would take their jobs.

Thankfully, that’s not really an issue now. Workers are happy to concede “dirty, dull and dangerous” jobs to robots, and they mostly recognize the need and value of automation.

Indeed, new research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that workers have a more optimistic, nuanced perspective on automation. Led by Ben Armstrong, Ph.D., executive director at the Industrial Performance Center at MIT, the researchers surveyed more than 9,000 workers across nine countries in 2024. They found that more workers report potential benefits from new technologies like robots and AI than report potential costs. They believe that automation benefits their safety and comfort at work, their pay, and their autonomy on the job.

Workers with jobs that ask them to solve complex problems, workers who feel valued by their employers, and workers who are motivated to move up in their careers are all more likely to see new technologies as beneficial. Ironically, more formal education is, in some cases, associated with more negative attitudes toward automation and its impact on work.

Perhaps things are different on the docks. But, in manufacturing, at least, employers today are less concerned about reducing head count than they are about keeping the workers they already have. With factories having difficulty hiring, managers are increasingly deploying robots to handle easy, mundane tasks, such as machine tending, so that the few people who are on the payrolls are free to do things only people can do.