“‘I happen to believe that as a nation, we should begin a serious discussion — and the UAW is doing that — about substantially lowering the workweek.’”
Artificial intelligence will help individuals reduce via time-consuming, labor-intensive work, and it’s poised to revolutionize the some ways individuals go about their jobs — if used correctly, that’s.
Nearly 13,000 United Auto Workers members walked off the job late final week, and certainly one of their calls for is a 32-hour workweek for 40 hours of pay. If carmakers agree to the thought, it will launch the four-day workweek idea from its “early adoption” second to office mainstream, consultants say.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an unbiased from Vermont, additionally made the connection between AI, a four-day workweek and the UAW strike towards Ford
F,
General Motors
GM,
and Stellantis
STLA,
after showing at a rally in Detroit, Mich.
Benefits of a shorter workweek
Sanders — who spoke Friday at a UAW rally — instructed Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday that the thought of a shortened workweek isn’t tied to one labor dispute. There’s an “explosion” of robotics and AI that may enhance employee productiveness, he stated.
“The question, as a nation, that we have got to ask ourselves is, who’s going to benefit from that increased productivity?” Sanders requested.
Instead of company leaders reaping the earnings, Sanders stated, “it seems to me that if new technology is going to make us a more productive society, the benefit should go to the workers.”
He stated that in a time when individuals are “stressed out for a dozen different reasons, it would be an extraordinary thing to see people have more time” for themselves, their households or to pursue a higher schooling.
There are many individuals who would agree that a four-day workweek could be a rare benefit, polls recommend. Eight in 10 individuals help a four-day workweek as an alternative of a five-day week, in accordance to a Bankrate survey launched in August.
Workers fear about the impression of AI
Of course, as with different revolutions, there’s additionally the fear that issues might not go as hoped.
In a worst-case state of affairs, many individuals fear that if the rise of AI expertise renders their place out of date, they’ll find yourself with a zero-day workweek.
Almost half — 49% — of 31,000 individuals polled in 31 international locations stated they fear AI may substitute their jobs, in accordance to a separate Microsoft
MSFT,
survey from May.
The identical survey highlights the combine of pleasure and apprehension over what AI may imply for individuals.
More than two-thirds of individuals say they don’t have enough time to focus throughout the workday, and 70% stated they’d need to offload as a lot work as they might to AI-powered strategies so as to lighten their job duties.
Auto staff need a shorter workweek
A UAW win on a 32-hour workweek would even be a massive win for the broader four-day week idea, stated Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, director at Four Day Week Global, the place he helps employers contemplate how to implement the thought.
One of the causes is that “it would re-establish the idea that the benefits of automation and technological innovation should be shared with workers in the form of living wages and more free time, not just converted into higher stock dividends and CEO bonuses,” he stated.
“The idea that we should use innovation to make work better, rather than use it to destroy jobs and thus communities, family stability [and] faith in the American system, would be a huge turnaround in our thinking,” he stated.
It stays to be seen whether or not the four-day workweek will acquire traction in the present labor talks. A Stellantis spokeswoman beforehand instructed MarketWatch that the firm would have to incur main additional prices to sustain manufacturing schedules if staff moved to a curtailed work schedule.
