I have recently made a post denouncing the degrading working condition for software developers in Brazil. I posted about it because it is my field of work, I am a software developer.
Image source: https://e-orchids.com/blog/why-are-humans-being-replaced-by-robots/
In my original post, I talked about how I became interested in the workers union. I contacted our local union of technology workers and they told us that the negotiations manage to reach an 8% raise which is still 2/3 of the projected inflation since the inflation is already above 10% for 2021 and may easily go past 12%...
@rawbe came with an important insight though, which made me realize that unions, although important, are powerless...
a potential problem with trying to organize a union. It is very easy to outsource IT work to another country
That is a problem that affects many areas, not only IT. For workers that require manual labor, you would think that they are harder to replace right? Because they need to be physically present. But... Robots... Companies have been investing heavily in automating manual labor... So I actually think no one is safe. I am guilty, I have worked with automation and robots take people's jobs.
I am in no way whatsoever against automation, that is dumb, humanity has to increase productivity and move forward, however, how do we make ends meet? How do we increase production output without leaving people unemployed?
Globalization makes it easy to lay off and replace workers. Automation makes it easy to lay off and change a human for a robot.
How come we managed to develop and increase output so much while at the same time generating so much inequality and poverty? And more importantly, how do we aid it??? When questioning myself about that it leaves in a deep feeling of inexorable doom of society as we know...
What is to be done in the end? How do we ensure we don't destroy society well being?
The end of feudalism brought great growth because people were no long subordinated to overlords, they could be paid more fairly for their work since they did not have to give a fixed amount to the owners of the land. But the end of feudalism was not the end of slavery, that was the real revolution.
The end of slavery brought unprecedented development because all of a sudden society had a new class of people to consume products. Before all the value from the slave's labor was leeched by their owners, when they started receiving salaries it all changed for the better for everyone. We seem to be going back in time. With people having lower wages and being laid off by employers we have fewer people consuming.
The fewer value people get from their work the less they spend. The fewer people spend the more stagnated the economy becomes, and that is a macro-level issue, not even touching about the micro-level issues, where people can go homeless or starve... I am far from being homeless or starving, but it is a trend, and I fear my day will come if I keep ignoring the issue...
So I keep pressing the issue. If not even workers' unions can help, what do we do as workers and as a society have to do to avoid collapse? My workers' union is powerless, they don't have the power to negotiate a raise that even matches the inflation. What is left for workers to do?...
In a global economy, the production of something so ephemeral like software seems difficult to control regionally by a union. In the film industry the guild/unions are awfully powerful. A whole swath of our industry might shut down soon because all the unions are banding together to support the union agitating for the strike. A problem as well but from the other side of the coin. The guild strikes about 15 years ago were a major force in exploding the volume of unscripted TV and new media content which worked against them. IMHO you can’t rely on unions or corporations. You gotta expand your revenue streams.
Wouldn't that be just moving the issue to another source?
That is what I am doing. I have a main job, I do some freelances and I invest my money. I am lucky to be in a "high end" sector with many opportunities, but I can't expand and expand my revenue streams, we have a limit don't you think?
Sure, we have economic limits, but those limits aren't totally defined. My point is that the union has a limited utility. Don't count on them. That isn't to say that your union should not be fighting the good fight.
This pretty much reminds me of Amazon working conditions. Have you seen how their employees are treated?
From the news, yes I did.
They treat them like they don't need the employees. They for sure have some robots in development and they know if the employees resign they can replace them. It is just logical that for now, it is cheaper to treat workers poorly and deal with the consequences later.
If any, rich people are known for not facing consequences, so probably it will be unfair for a long time still...
Yay! 🤗
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