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News dated 27/01/2016
Adaption, Mitigation, Just Transition: Responding to the 4th Industrial Revolution
UNI GLOBAL UNION Secretary General PHILIP JENNINGS spoke in Davos (CH) releasing tens of interviews about the jobs threat due to the speed of the 4th industrial revolution

Adaption, Mitigation, Just Transition: Responding to the 4th Industrial Revolution

ON THIS LINK ALL THE PRESS COVERAGE ABOUT THE EVENT

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UNI Global Union’s General Secretary Philip Jennings brought a stark call to action to leaders gathering in Davos this week to debate the 4th Industrial Revolution.

 

Jennings said, “We are seeing record levels of inequality and if this culture of excess is allowed to thrive, the winners of the 4th Industrial Revolution will only be the 1 percent. 

"Davos leaders must face up the challenges presented by the 4th Industrial Revolution. We are experiencing a time of profound technological advancement. We have important choices to make. Do we continue on the path to unfettered digital capitalism where the creation of wealth is siphoned off by a tiny majority or do we aim for a period of just transition to create a sustainable system based on economic inclusion?

"As with the challenges of climate change we must adapt, mitigate and seek a just transition for workers if we are to create a sustainable future. Just transition is another way of demanding solidarity. Solidarity might sound old fashioned but it is a concept that has never gone out of date. The labour movement is not seeking to put a spanner in the works of the new digital revolution. We are laying down a manifesto where people are not left behind."

Jennings believes policy platforms for a just transition in the digital age should include:

  • Quality jobs
  • Upskilling
  • Social inclusion
  • Stronger labour market institutions

"To achieve a just transition, digital businesses, such as Uber and Amazon, must accept that labour standards apply just as much to them as they do to long standing businesses. Governments also have a responsibility to make sure they have policies in place to ensure businesses are properly regulated. We need to create a future where workers and families do not carry all the risk, and where a social safety net is in place from training, through social insurance to income guarantees. The 4th Industrial Revolution should not be used as an excuse to run roughshod over human and workers’ rights won over the last hundred years.

We should not fool ourselves into thinking we are talking about the distant future. A poorly regulated financial sector and a technological revolution spells trouble for labour markets today. Davos Man is right to be nervous, the Royal Bank of Scotland warning we are heading for a cataclysmic year and there are warning signs we could be on the way to another financial crash: this means we should not give a free pass to the finance sector as we tackle the implications of the digital revolution.”

Jennings to CNN: don't underestimate automation jobs threat

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Watch interview here

UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings used an interview with CNN’s Richard Quest to warn business leaders at Davos not to underestimate the jobs threat posed by the fourth industrial revolution.

The World Economic Forum predicts that a minimum of 5 million jobs could be lost by 2020 as a result of technological advances but Jennings said the figure was likely to be far higher in the long term.

“The information that we are given and that the research that has been carried out indicate that as many as one in two jobs could be impacted. Jobs will be replaced by technology, by artificial intelligence and by robots.

“We expect to see a cannibalisation of jobs, of quality of life and of the content of work."

Jennings was speaking to CNN ahead of the Forum which begins in Davos this week with a focus on the fourth industrial revolution. "Industry 4.0" is characterised by an increasing automation and digitalisation of human tasks, the rise of non-standard forms of work, and the individualisation of the workforce. Jennings called for a fair deal for workers facing the onset of sweeping economic and social changes by describing three essential pillars of transformation – adaptation, mitigation and a just transition. “We are facing a dramatic social change and the digi sharks need to understand their responsibility,” he added.

 

UNI pushes jobs agenda to world media at Davos

 

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings painted a picture of the world labour market during a round of interviews with global media outlets at the World Economic Forum.

Jennings is an in-demand speaker in Davos for his forthright views on a lack of vision from businesses and policy makers to address the jobs challenge facing the planet as the fourth industrial revolution takes hold.

 

In an interview with Swiss news network RTS, Jennings said:

“Our role here is to push the debate towards the social consequences. We have started and we have the proof. Academics and thought leaders confirm that there will be a huge effect on jobs. Far more than the financial crash.”

 

Speaking to Euronews, he said: ( See full interview here)

“Let’s look at the scale of the problem that’s in front of us. We already have 200 million people unemployed. Half the world’s workforce is surviving on just a couple of dollars per day and they are classified in the informal sector. Now you put on top of that this digital revolution that’s taking place and all of the statistics that we see are alarmist.”

The UK’s Daily Mail said the looming financial meltdown had cast a shadow over the annual meeting, quoting Jennings who said, “We are heading for a crash. Cataclysm would be the right word to use.”

 

Germany’s Deutsche Welle asked whether inequality could be the next global crisis. Watch interview here

“It already is.” Jennings said. “Inequality has been festering and becoming more and more prominent as time goes by. There has been a kind of reckoning here at Davos and at other institutions that we have reached a stage in economic development where the economic benefits are not being felt by all the people.  It’s essentially the top one per cent. It’s one thing when a union leader says it but when institutions like the OECD and IMF begin to say that this is bad for our economies, this is bad for growth and bad for business we need to rethink where we went wrong.”

UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings painted an alarming picture of the world labour market during a round of interviews with global media outlets at the World Economic Forum.

Jennings is an in-demand speaker in Davos for his forthright views on a lack of vision from businesses and policy makers to address the jobs challenge facing the planet as the fourth industrial revolution takes hold.

 

In an interview with Swiss news network RTS (see full interview here), Jennings said:

“Our role here is to push the debate towards the social consequences. We have started and we have the proof. Academics and thought leaders confirm that there will be a huge effect on jobs. Far more than the financial crash.”

 

Jennings on BBC: Artificial Intelligence will change employment landscape

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UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings told BBC reporter, Tanya Beckett, on Day 1 of Davos, that the robotic revolution was real and no longer belonged to realms of science fiction.

Jennings said, “We’re not just talking about robots replacing people in the factory line. We’re talking about the incursion of artificial intelligence in all the so-called professional skills and qualifications. Whether it’s in health and legal, accountancy and finance.”

See full feature here: (UK viewers only) http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06wy0nt/asia-business-report-20012016

The theme of the World Economic Forum’s Annual meeting in Davos is “Mastering the 4th Industrial Revolution and aims to create a debate about how digitisation is changing the way we work and live.

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Jennings spoke to France 24 about the new digital revolution and the threat of ‘digital sharks’, companies with a ‘winner takes all’ attitude. The UNI General Secretary emphasised that regulation on its own was not the solution. He said what was needed was ‘Adaption, Mitigation and Just Transition’ to the new digital world to prevent the widening gap between the richest 1% and the rest.