From Labor Day 2023 to Labor Day 2024, it’s been a big year for organized labor and the U.S. workforce. Employees across many industries went on strike, namely the United Auto Workers. More companies and organizations implemented uses of generative artificial intelligence, and companies grappled with maintaining their virtual, hybrid or in-person environments. 

Michigan State University is leading the Future of Work Initiative, which included an inaugural conference earlier this year. Tara Behrend is the initiative’s director and John Richard Butler II Endowed Professor in the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations and Hye Jin Rho is an assistant professor in the same school, which is housed in the College of Social Science.

As people think about the contributions of the American labor movement this Labor Day, Behrend and Rho answer questions about the future of work and issues facing the workforce.

Responses and excerpts are from a recording of MSU Today with Russ White.

How can we think about the future of work?

Behrend: I’ve heard the term ‘future of work’ being used frequently for at least the last 10 years and, from the beginning, it meant something like, ‘Will robots take all of our jobs?’ and ‘Can we automate every single thing that a person does?’ There were lots of fears that there would not be enough work. We would have mass unemployment or maybe some hopes that we would all be sitting on the beach drinking while robots brought us our drinks.

There was not a lot of sense to what are the things that are uniquely human that cannot be automated or should not be automated. The conversation about the future of work includes those and other concerns as well. So, I would say it’s about how emerging technologies are changing what work is done, how we do that work, how we connect to each other, and it’s important to note remote work is a part of that conversation.

Additionally, we have issues such as the aging workforce, changing demographics of the workforce and changes in the kinds of social contracts that are part of work that used to be there that aren’t there anymore. There are people who don’t have the kind of employment security that they deserve, but instead are working for an anonymous platform and are just sort of treated like a machine.

Why was this past year critical for labor and unions?

Rho: As a labor scholar, it was an interesting time. I went out on the picket lines to speak with the workers in the Detroit casino industry who went on strike. The contract they negotiated contains language about technology for the first time ever. It contains language about the requirements on technology, including advanced notices and training for new technology that may be introduced, severance pay and health care benefits for those who are laid off due to the technology. These are significant developments when thinking about technology and collective bargaining.

Working with unions on these research programs is therefore important and, since only less than 7% of workers are unionized in the private sector, it’s important to know what we can do in nonunionized settings and make sure that workers are able to exercise voice in the absence of the unions.

Despite what we’ve seen last year with the labor movement, we have not seen the increase in the number of people who are joining unions. I do feel optimistic after seeing what I saw in Michigan last year, and going forward, it’s important to think about, ‘Okay, can workers actually gain power and, if so, how?’ At MSU and the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations, our scholars really do a lot of important and careful research on the rising need of labor unions. There have been a lot of conversations about revitalization of the labor movement, including new innovative tactics in terms of collective bargaining and negotiating. So, this is something to just really keep in mind as we discuss the future of work.

How will artificial intelligence, or AI, and technology impact the future?

Behrend: We have questions about topics such as ‘What does a globalized workforce look like?’ or ‘How do we interact with people who are very different culturally?” or “How do we deal with changes not anticipated based on previous industrial revolutions?’ The ways that technology is now changing work, I think, are not qualitatively different, but rather just an extreme extension of what we’re already seeing.

So, there are tasks that can be automated; in fact, we call it automation surprise when an automated tool kicks in in a way that you weren’t expecting and you aren’t ready to react to and it causes a potentially catastrophic problem. I think this is the essential emerging area here where we talk about how people use it at work. It’s not just an ethical issue but also a moral issue. It is also just a practical issue; for example, understanding the consequences of people’s implementation of new tools.

What are the challenges and benefits of remote work?

Behrend: My suspicion is that many managers do not know how to manage a remote workforce. It makes them uncomfortable, and they want to see the person, they want to look them in their faces.

I think there is something that is lost when people are remote. There is something different about an in-person meeting. In person, we can talk before the meeting and after the meeting while walking out of the room together and you can follow up on interesting ideas. You’re forming connections, you’re asking people what they’re going to do that weekend. Those conversations do have a positive effect on certain kinds of work. But there’s also a lot of work that does not require that.

So, what we want to encourage people to do is think about what are the kinds of tasks that need to get done and how many of them actually need to happen in person and support managers to manage remote workforce.

Rho: I teach a course on human capital and society for fourth-year students. I often ask them about their careers and what they think their future career and future work will look like. Surprisingly, many of them say they prefer in-person work and that stems from their own experiences of doing internships where a lot of them were remote and they faced a lot of struggles that Tara was just talking about.

What came about from the Future of Work Conference?

Behrend: At the conference, we engaged in many important conversations about assumptions we are making and new topics we need to reconsider when thinking about the future. We engaged partners around the region who are eager to collaborate.

MSU researchers and scholars at other institutions left with takeaways to form new research teams and are already developing research proposals and grant proposals. I have become very interested in skilled trades and how to improve these pipelines and show people they are good paying jobs, as well as boosting female employment in these fields.

There was a lot of exciting energy around new topics, and I am excited to see where it takes us.