Bernie Sanders Backs UAW Call for a 4-Day Work Week
Who will benefit from gains from automation and artificial intelligence, senator asks
One of the most outspoken and progressive lawmakers in Congress is supporting the demand of striking auto workers to shift to a four-day work week.
Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) walked off the job last week to strike three big US automakers.
The union is seeking a variety of concessions from the corporations, including higher pay, enhanced retirement benefits and a 32-hour workweek.
Sen Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who ran for president twice and has been highly supportive of organized labor, is strongly backing the UAW demand to shrink the workweek.
“We are looking at an explosion in this country of artificial intelligence and robotics. And that means that the average worker is going to be much more productive. Worker productivity is going to increase significantly. The question as a nation that we have got to ask ourselves is, ‘Who's going to benefit from that increased productivity?’” Sanders said. “Is all of that new income and wealth being created by worker productivity going to go to the people on top, or are workers going to benefit?
“So, right now, in my view, 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.”
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