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Whether it's robots stacking shipping containers or ChatGPT editing a movie script, workers this year are fretting over technology.

Dockworkers who walked off the job this week — over demands for higher pay and a ban on automation — marked the latest example of that collective anxiety boiling over. In the absence of workplace policy that balances the rush of technology with job security, expect more labor action to fill the void.

Unionized workers are increasingly deciding for themselves how they want tech advancements to play out, rather than fully accepting the whims of their employers. That’s true for longshoremen just as it was for Hollywood writers. (Just a few days ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a high-profile bill that would have been one of the most comprehensive policies around regulating AI in the US.)

“We know from history labor success tends to build greater success,” said Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, an associate professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University and former US Department of Labor official.

Hertel-Fernandez said it’s no coincidence that we are seeing the bold posture from the port workers, given the recent labor action from several other unions including Hollywood creatives, the UAW, and Kaiser healthcare workers. The high-profile incidents have a spillover effect, he said. They encourage workers who see others winning gains amid a supportive public environment and a favorable political context.

“Across the board, in very different sectors, we are seeing technology being rolled out in ways that can empower workers but it can also degrade their work or even displace them altogether,” he said.

The potential impact of the port strike on the economy is a key point of leverage for workers. The timeline remains fuzzy but experts say a prolonged work stoppage would cause significant delays in unloading cargo, higher prices, and product shortages. Those plausible consequences have also generated a backlash in some circles. The striking dockworkers are acting selfishly, critics of the action have said, highlighting a resistance to what many see as an inevitable progress of technology in manual work.

But a compromise wouldn’t have to outright ban automation, said Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. A broader policy solution could mandate worker retraining so that employees can qualify for other roles when their jobs are displaced.

"We don’t want people to be left behind. We don’t want them to become obsolete due to robots," he said.

The conversation around the dockworker strike also highlights a self-serving belief that automation will only disrupt manual fields, as if having a laptop job is a protective moat.

"Eventually, this is going to happen in every sector," he said. "So if people are not worried about longshore people losing their jobs, they will be worried a year from now when they are losing their own."

Hamza Shaban is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering markets and the economy. Follow Hamza on X @hshaban.

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