Dockworkers join other unions in trying to fend off automation, or minimize the impact

By Cathy Bussewitz

The massive port workers’ strike that has crippled all the major dockyards on the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. is highlighting a fear held by many workers: Eventually, we will all be replaced by machines.

The International Longshoremen’s Association, which represents the approximately 45,000 dock workers who walked off the job Tuesday, is testing whether it’s possible to fight back.

The union is demanding, along with hefty pay raises, a total ban on the automation of grates, cranes and container-moving trucks in its ports. But it’s unclear whether they’ll be able to stave off a trend that has seeped into virtually every workspace.

The growth of automation and technological advances have created tension between workers and management since the Industrial Revolution, when machines first began to manufacture goods that had previously been made by hand. And with the growing use of artificial intelligence, the group of jobs workers perceive as threatened