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Automation and closures are challenges – but failure does not have to be inevitable
SHARON GRAHAM of Unite the Union explains how rebuilding the shop stewards’ movement will help develop meaningful industrial power in an age of growing jobs uncertainty
A robot appears before a parliamentary select committee last year

TODAY as trade unionists our most significant, long-term challenges arguably have very little to do with the political circus surrounding Brexit.

The continued crisis in wages, the rise of contingent and outsourced work that so badly fragments our labour market, the job threat from the dawn of industry 4.0 and the corresponding decline of collective bargaining that has helped underpin this all. We face many serious problems but they are not insurmountable and managed decline does not have to be inevitable.

Among all of this, one thing is for certain. If we want to drive up living standards, we will face a fight for jobs and possibly for the future of work itself. 

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