Stop & Shop Strike Raises Concerns About Automation
Technology permeates our everyday lives and, if you haven’t noticed, is quickly accelerating. I was recently at a Stop & Shop self-checkout register and there was an elderly couple at the next kiosk. I observed them struggling to scan their vegetables. Their attempts were futile: you have to enter the “PLU” code or search through pictures of the alphabetized produce names. The system eventually locked itself on them, requiring a human worker to intervene. I tried to explain the situation to the worker, that they needed a demonstration on how to use the self-checkout but he was clearly preoccupied by other registers ringing for his attention and quickly waived the locked screen and went to help another customer. The couple left with superbly discounted groceries. New technology is being introduced faster than employees and customers are able to keep up with.
As of April 11th, over 30,000 Stop & Shop employees have been on strike over cuts to workers’ health care, take home pay, and retirement benefits. Over the years, I have witnessed the increase of self-checkout lines, self-scanning devices, and robots that surveil the aisles. The Stop & Shop in Brighton on North Beacon Street has not hired a new full-time employee in three years. Meat is packaged in a Pennsylvania facility and transported to eliminate the need for onsite butchers. Marty the Robot scans the floor to flag hazards such as spills. A new Peapod facility in Windsor Locks, Connecticut has a conveyor belt picking system to service online orders; previously, workers picked products in 60 seconds whereas this automated system takes 6 seconds.
When Stop & Shop and the union come to an agreement, it does not change the fact that automation and AI is more efficient than human labor. Robots don’t need to take breaks. They don’t even need to sleep. Capitalism fuels our current society and a corporation’s purpose is to increase profits. Corporate executives are hired to maximize shareholder value, not to maximize employee quality of life. Over 6,100 brick and mortar stores are closing this year and is being referred to as the Retail Apocalypse. The rise of ecommerce companies, most notably Amazon, renders business more difficult for traditional retailers. Mckinsey Global Institute estimates that automation could destroy over 73 million U.S. jobs by 2030. This could lead to a crisis greater than the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Democratic Presidential candidate Andrew Yang stated in his book, The War on Normal People, “A wave of automation and job loss is no longer a dystopian vision of the future — it’s well underway”. While some call for government funded training programs for workers in transition, data has shown that these programs have less than a 15% success rate. Yang’s non-profit, Venture for America, focuses on creating jobs in communities that have already been affected by automation such as Detroit, Cleveland, and St. Louis. “We helped created several thousand jobs in cities across the country, but I realized that we were pouring water into a bathtub that has a giant hole ripped in the bottom”.
Yang is running a policy-heavy campaign that speaks to the need “to rise to the challenges of the 21st century”. His “Freedom Dividend” (a universal basic income of $1,000 per month for every adult citizen), Medicare for All, and Human Centered Capitalism proposals would benefit retail workers, such as those at Stop & Shop, in profound ways. It would empower them to advocate for better working conditions, provide basic living support in the face of unemployment, and supplement their income in times of underemployment. We cannot rely on capitalistic market forces to act in the best interests of humanity. We need a visionary President that can guide the country through this era of unprecedented technological innovation. Yang’s presidential campaign offers data-backed solutions that have drawn support from both liberals and conservatives.
For those of you who are supporting the Stop & Shop union strike, remember that there is an overarching theme. Automation and AI threaten to replace human workers over the next 5 to 10 years. As the 2020 election looms closer, keep in mind that a vote for Andrew Yang is a vote for Humanity First.
