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Robot Worries Could Cause a 50,000-Worker Strike in Las Vegas (technologyreview.com)
Thousands of unionized hotel and casino workers in Las Vegas are ready to go on strike for the first time in more than three decades. From a report: Members of the Culinary Union, who work in many of the city's biggest casinos, have voted to approve a strike unless a deal is reached soon. Some background: On June 1, the contracts of 50,000 union workers expire, making them eligible to strike. Employees range from bartenders to guest room attendants. The last casino worker strike, in 1984, lasted 67 days and cost more than $1 million a day. Why? Higher wages, naturally. But the workers are also looking for better job security, especially from robots. "We support innovations that improve jobs, but we oppose automation when it only destroys jobs," says Geoconda Arguello-Kline, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union. "Our industry must innovate without losing the human touch."
So they're willing to go on strike to prevent their jobs from being taken by robots that can't go on strike? I can see no downside.
I fully support their right to strike since it is the only mechanism the 'common worker' has to defend themselves and ensure they get a reasonable slice of the pie. However, this is probably something that cannot be stopped.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I enjoy some repartee with my dealer, and to know when to walk away when they bring in a new (mean/Chiller) dealer.
It would probably cost less, because I tip my human dealers and waitresses, but certainly less "fun". with robots. If I want creepy animatronics, I can go to a Disney park,
I also wonder how a robodealer would figure out I was counting cards with multiple decks....
Are those the same people who used to be called hotel maids?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
rather than demand the continuation of exhausting and physically demanding work instead of automation you should be demanding the wealth generated by automation and civilization be evenly distributed.
Of course can't have that since it's the socialisms...
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Perhaps, but I was there last week and the casinos and street were so packed you could barely walk.
I hate fat people.
not dealers. At a high volume bar you don't interact enough with the bartender for it to matter much. At the more expensive lower volume ones they're not going to replace the bartender because it's usually a pretty girl/hot guy for you to ogle and hit on.
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First question: can robots be called "scabs" ?
Second question: if we enact laws giving robots "human rights," as some, ahem, particular kinds of people suggest, now can they be called "scabs" ?
Personally, despite my strong support for unions, I can't support this action. If robots are acceptable to the casino customers and their TCO is less than for people, then the union should have no control over this decision. Unions should (hah) be concerned with job qualities such as safety, pay level, benefits; not with the existence of jobs.
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The simple fact is that they can either get on board with learning to work with automation OR they can eventually watch their jobs go away anyway when the jobs move to someplace with more pliable labor and better automation. It would not be hard for tourists to start going elsewhere if they don't like what they get. If you have a job that can be readily taken by automation then sooner or later it will be. Your only defense against this is to have a skill set that is difficult to automate. Pretending otherwise is like fooling yourself into thinking this internet thing is a fad.
The USA needs to do that, not by replacing the servers, but by paying them legit wages for their time. The whole idea that a server should make less per hour because she MIGHT be tipped is just wrong. There are many countries around the world that do not tip, because it's not necessary, it's even frowned apon in some cultures.
We don't even have the tech to drive a car by itself yet and almost any mouth breather can drive. So take cooking which a lot of people can't do at all and worry about robots doing it.
Complete insanity
It would probably cost less, because I tip my human dealers and waitresses, but certainly less "fun". with robots. If I want creepy animatronics, I can go to a Disney park,
That is a valid opinion but the question would be how many people share that opinion. Slot machines don't involve a person and they are hugely popular. I could see plenty of people wanting to play blackjack or poker and not caring at all if there is a human dealer. I know I wouldn't give a shit.
I also wonder how a robodealer would figure out I was counting cards with multiple decks....
The dealer probably doesn't most of the time unless you are being stupidly obvious about it. It's the eye in the sky that is watching for that.
Then you've never been to Asia. Much wait/server staff have been automated for about a decade or more.
And your point is?
By your logic, since there are also many countries around the world where English is not the primary language, American servers should not speak English....
While the proper payscale of servers is debatable, the fact that tips are part of our culture (yeah, I know, Americans and "culture" are two words that don't really go together) means that tips should at least be considered when discussing pay....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Ill be over here sipping tea with kermit.
Then you've never been to Asia. Much wait/server staff have been automated for about a decade or more.
I go to Asia regularly but have never seen an automated serving staff. Perhaps you mean just the islands off the southeast coast of Asia?
Fortunately, all the striking workers can be easily replaced by robots, so it will cause no inconvenience to the companies involved! In short, when you realize that robots could do your job much better for a much lower price, you should probably shut up about it! As a consultant, I constantly bite my tongue to avoid pointing out to customers how stupid it is that they are paying me a lot of money for little benefit to their company.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Probably just refering to kiosks to order your own fast food rather than having counter people type in your order for you. I keep predicting that if $15/hr minimum wage is put in place, McDonald's will start using that system in the US as well, they already use it in several other countries.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Most food people eat is made by machines already. Look at around at the packaged stuff in the supermarket. Most people couldn't make it as well and consistent as a machine.
My favorite strip club just isn't that same ever since they went completely automated...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Theres more humans working on that stuff then you think. If you want to see something really fall down funny google "Food service automation" and click on images.
There's nothing sane about demanding companies begin evenly distributing wealth with you, just because they invested a portion of their profits in automation. Heck, in this case, none of that even happened yet. These workers are just realizing that the jobs they do could potentially be automated so they're trying to work a deal to ensure their employers don't take advantage of new technology as it becomes available to them.
Ironically, they're striking over this in the casinos of Vegas, of all places! Let's think about that for a minute. You're talking about an industry that's been centered around automation of much of its profit center since practically day 1. Slot machines are standard fare, and they've brought in things like video poker and video blackjack too. On top of that? These guys only let people play games that are rigged in the house's favor. If they even suspect you're using a skill like card counting ability to get an edge while playing, they ban you from the casino. But you expect them to invest in automation so they can equitably share the money made by it with you? Let me get my popcorn .....
I agree there are still plenty of humans working in the food industry, but they use machines to produce very large amounts of food.
"Food service automation" and click on images.
Try "food industry automation" instead.
Amazing what people will belive these days.
Stop "knowing" that Americans and culture don't go together because that is a phenomenally stupid thing to "know".
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Thats slightly better but all I see is poorly adapted industrial robots doing what a human could do faster. Also I see people as well in most of those images so obviously there are parts of the process they couldnt automate.
It's like being mad at something that does't exist at all.
I was just in Las Vegas where a couple Kuka Robots made all the drinks. You walk up to your table, pick you drink on an iPad, and the robot makes it. You get a message when it is ready.
Sure, it is more the novelty right now but I wouldn't be surprised if its making some people in Las Vegas nervous.
Here's a video of what I saw : https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Hey at least thats something thanks for posting the video. However a two armed human could have made that drink in half the time.
You're looking at pictures of a industrial robot flipping burgers with a spatula.
I look at pictures of 4-ft wide conveyor ovens that heat top & bottom at the same time and processes thousands of patties per hour, with maybe a single human operator checking the process.
And your point is?
By your logic, since there are also many countries around the world where English is not the primary language, American servers should not speak English....
While the proper payscale of servers is debatable, the fact that tips are part of our culture (yeah, I know, Americans and "culture" are two words that don't really go together) means that tips should at least be considered when discussing pay....
I suspect that his point is that it's actually possible; it's not some insane unworkable idea, because it's actually, you know, done in some places.
A kitchen is a much more well-defined and static environment than an open road. Much easier to automate.
Also the fact you called a commecial kitchen static shows how little you know. Theres literally movement everywhere in a decent sized kitchen with a good staff.
Yeah the conveyors are good for processing the patties and that would be faster in an industrial setting like that. Howvever this is not something that would work well at the restaraunt level. How is a conveyor going to put the rest of the ingredients on the burger? You have any tomato slicing and lettuce handling robots? Im putting my bets on a person in that instance for a long time to come.
Yes they also require power, maintence and programming and a lot of upfront capital. Which are a lot more expensive then your typical burger flipping human. Not to mention the liabliity if the machine accidentally mauls somebody to death. This happens in factories all the time.
So having a fleet of robots with 3 maids instead of having 20 maids and no robots seems like a good idea.
Yes it will displace some people, but that always happens when new technology comes along.
The service will go up, the prices will go down, the people will move on to better jobs with more skills, if not they will be out evolved.
The robot service industry will create new jobs.
Yes your 50,000 workforce will be reduced to 10,000, you can't stop technology and you can't fight corporate greed, but I view this as a good thing overall and a win for the customers.
It might not happen this year, but in 5 years it will.
Heh, yet another reason to vacation anywhere else. ;-)
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Probably just refering to kiosks to order your own fast food rather than having counter people type in your order for you. I keep predicting that if $15/hr minimum wage is put in place, McDonald's will start using that system in the US as well, they already use it in several other countries.
Most US McDonald's already have kiosks, and many of them have gone to exclusive kiosk ordering.
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Looks like that robot is mostly for show. You could design a better system if you just wanted to mix drinks without too much fuss. Put all the dispensers much closer together, in a 2D plane, and move multiple glasses in a fixed track underneath.
enough to go to college, but they _are_ smart enough to hold a gun. For thousands of years demagogues have used desperation and fear to motivate and organize these people. Perhaps if you have the guts to brutally oppress and kill them you can keep them under control. Much like we keep the population of stray dogs under control. But I don't know a lot of folks who have what it takes to go that route or who would say it's the right thing to do.
If you abandon the working class they will turn on you out of desperation. And if you wait until they actually turn on you to oppress them it'll be too late. Now's the time to act. Either fix the world so it's a better place for everyone or hope you're gonna get to be one of the oppressors and get to work on justifications for the brutal things you're going to have to do to maintain your quality of life.
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The number of restaurants that make their own burger buns, minced meat or ketchup is extremely small. In other words, everything except for heating it and putting it together is already automated.
Will that last 2 steps be automated? Well, the gas stove does most of the heating already. And putting it together can be done by machines, but it requires some dexterity and flexibility, both in the appendages and in software. QA is also missing right now.
At least in the near future, those problem won't be solved by machines. Not just because there's no easy way to do it, but also because there's not enough incentive. Restaurant workers are cheap and a lot of people visit restaurants for the human experience.
Yes you could do that and it would still be beat by a $7/hr. human.
More or less. I really used Vegas as a place to sleep and eat. Spent the majority of time in the state and national parks in the surrounding area. I did see a show and hit a few nice restaurants. Gambled exactly zero time. I'll take hiking and camping anyway over hanging out in the city.
I hate fat people.
robot work tax + lower full time with bigger OT (make it harder to just put people on salary) maybe even some kind of CEO pay cap.
My post was sarcasm. The people in Vegas would not have jobs at all if it weren't for past productivity improvements. I understand that the migration to cities was not necessarily a happy move for all involved, but in retrospect it has been great for our society. Similarly, when steel plants automated and went from 70,000 workers to 700, it was a miserable time to be a steelworker. But we're not talking about forcing steel plants to go back to the old, labor intensive process. When some kind of a kitchen machine can replace a guy in the prep area, this is an improvement - not something to fear. It's not like we are banning automatic dishwashers or laundry machines.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
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Concessions in theaters as well.
Internet has live dealers!
Almost all technological advancements begin as a novelty. That's how they evolve.
Not over the life if the machine. They are dramatically cheaper than humans.
> Robot Worries Could Cause a 50,000-Worker Strike in Las Vegas
I suppose the Robots should worry. There has been a large effort to discriminate against them by humans.
I do wonder how the robots will strike. Do all of the autonomous vehicles and drones in Vegas just stay parked for a day?
...and almost any mouth breather can drive.
You don't pay much attention, do you?
Food bought in the grocery store is not fungible with a meal at a restaurant. Jobs and automation in the food industry is an entirely different ball of wax than jobs in food service.
Sounds great, except for the part where you think we're going to convince the people who own the robots to give us a cut.
As mentioned, why aren't you agitating to get rid of vacuum cleaners and washing machines, so more hotel staff must be hired to carry rugs outside to hand beat, and smash rocks against clothes to clean them down by the river?
No, seriously.
No, really. Seriously.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"Technology ALWAYS wins, workers ALWAYS lose." --CGP Grey from https://youtu.be/7Pq-S557XQU
Excellent satire and the funny mod points are well deserved. Underlying truth is that modern economics is incredibly stupid. Just a version of looking where the light is better when the wallet was dropped on the other side of town. The economists love money because it's easy to count.
We should switch to ekronomics, which puts the time (kronos) first. There are problems with counting time and with thinking properly about future times, but the time and how we spent it are much more important than how much money we died with. Another interesting aspect is that time is intrinsically much more equal than physical things. My 24-hour day is fundamentally similar to the day of any billionaire.
Pie in the sky. We're locked into the bribery-based corporate cancerism that killed off the last shreds of capitalism. Still seems insane to me that there is any poverty in a world where the overall average working time for essential production (such as food clothing and shelter) is around 10 hours per week, if only the working hours were distributed differently.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
They meet with the horse buggy whip union guys on Fridays.
There will be a robot in your room when you get there. She never has a headache, never gets tired. She'll wake you up on time too, fully refreshed. Be careful about getting the rooms with a B after them. Those are the BDSM rooms. Those robots can make you do all kinds of things you never knew you could do.
Ok, for those of you who are wondering, this is funny... I don't think they have such things - yet. I know, you wish they did. You'd book a room with the robot Wicked Wonda, right?
There are no examples because kitchen workers are a dime a dozen so automation isn't worth it. There's way more value tied up in solving the driving problem.
I don't know of any kitchen that's changing its layout every day like roads do with construction. You can build sensors right into the environment. Nothing needs to be moving in the kitchen but the robot.
I don't think you have a good grasp on the difficulties encountered by automobiles.
doesn't mean you should give up all hope. That's basically Conservatism in a nutshell: The idea that things can never get better so let's keep everything the same. It's that line of thought that got us 1200 years of dark ages.
I'm not saying we do knee jerk methods either. We use the scientific method. Hypothesis, Gather data, test, implement, more data gathering, adjust, adjust, adjust. And you live with the fact that you will _never_ have a perfect system or a body of philosophy that solves all problems.
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