Facebook commissioned an HRIA after UN investigators found that genocide was committed in the country. However, the HRIA did not adequately assess the most salient human rights impacts of Facebook’s presence and product in Myanmar. HRIAs should be updated if they are to be used on AI and algorithmic systems.
Technological advancements also introduce new actors to the human rights framework. The movement has historically focused on the role of the state in ensuring rights and justice. Today, technological advancements and the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, in particular, necessitate interaction, collaboration, ...
While recognizing the enormous progress that societies have made since the establishment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, technological advancements have inevitably profound implications for the human rights framework.
By any standard, the 1980s have been a difficult decade for the American worker. When inflation is taken into account, average weekly earnings have dropped more than 30% since 1969. Dislocations caused by takeovers, shutdowns, and downsizings have pushed mistrust of corporations to new heights. Disgruntled employees are filing record numbers of wrongful discharge suits ]
In such an economic environment, unions are ill-suited to meeting the needs of either workers or companies. At best, they are an irrelevance—a leftover from a previous industrial era. At worst, they are an obstacle to making companies and countries competitive. Little wonder, then, that unions are on the wane.
Much as companies are struggling to define new ways of managing, a new model of unionism is emerging that puts unions at the very center of companies’ efforts to improve their competitiveness. In a world where success in the marketplace increasingly depends on creating more flexible, team-based work organizations, unions can be a surprisingly effective means to integrate employees into managerial decision making. Similarly, the lack of an institution that gives voice to workers’ interests and perspectives can block companies’ efforts to adapt to change. Put simply, strong unions can make stronger companies.
In Japan, with its generally peaceful labor relations, management invites union involvement to improve productivity and quality. In Germany and Scandinavia, on the other hand, laws require participation. In either case, the entrenched position of unions allows them not only to withstand the winds of economic change but also to make a positive contribution to corporate restructuring.
By any standard, the 1980s have been a difficult decade for the American worker . When inflation is taken into account, average weekly earnings have dropped more than 30 % since 1969. Dislocations caused by takeovers, shutdowns, and downsizings have pushed mistrust of corporations to new heights. Disgruntled employees are filing record numbers of wrongful discharge suits and job-discrimination and unfair-labor-practice complaints. And in the workplace, employees are demanding more challenging work, a voice in decision making, and greater job security.
Global competition requires a skilled work force. And yet, most companies devote few resources to training line workers because they fear that other companies will snap them up. Similarly, most workers lack incentives to buy training for themselves.
There is little rule making at Sarnia; instead, labor and management make decisions based on values expressed in a philosophical statement. Conditions of employment are continually renegotiated as circumstances dictate. For instance, managers and workers jointly agreed to switch from an 8-hour to a 12-hour shift by majority vote—a change that in a traditional union setting would have required amending the formal labor contract. Team members train one another, participate in hiring new workers, and settle most grievances on their own. From the local union’s perspective, its efforts at Sarnia are an attempt to shape the work organization “in a direction consistent with a democratic vision of the workplace,” writes Rankin. At the same time, intense worker involvement has also made the plant extremely efficient; output has gone as high as 195 % of design capacity.