'No Drones or Driverless Trucks', Demands Teamsters Labor Union (cnbc.com)

An anonymous reader quotes CNBC: No drones or driverless vehicles for delivering packages -- that's one of the major demands from the Teamsters labor union in the big contract negotiation it's undertaking with UPS this week. The union wants to ban UPS from using such new-fangled technology, which the logistics company has been reportedly testing... The current agreement affects 260,000 full and part-time UPS employees and expires in July. "UPS is focused on a contract that provides the flexibility needed to remain highly competitive, given the challenge of an increasingly crowded logistics segment," the company told CNBC.
The Drive notes the smaller carbon footprint of drone deliveries, while adding that "one completely understands and empathizes with the aversion truck drivers have toward this stark, autonomous future.

"If it feels like their jobs are being endangered by the incredible exponential growth in technology, it's because they are."

Comments

They're called "teamsters" because ...

[ScentCone]

They're called "teamsters" because they used to handle teams of horses to move freight. It's a good thing they didn't allow any new-fangled technology encroach on that business model!

I'm not buying the Utopia angel

[rsilvergun]

The rich aren't going to share the proceeds from all this increased productivity. They'll pocket it for themselves. And they won't need consumers if robots make all the stuff they want. They'll need a few servants for appearances sake, a few engineers to keep things running and a few doctors to treat their illnesses. That's maybe 10% of the population. Then they'll pit the other 90% of the population against each other to see who gets to join that 10% servant class.

People like to focus on the improved standard of living the industrial revolution brought us and forget about the 40-80 or so years of unemployment, chaos and social strife (the 'Gilded Age') that followed the last two industrial revolutions before other technologies caught up and employed the people who were put out of work.