Robot invasion isn’t top threat to Ports of Tacoma and Seattle. Market competition is

Automation is shaking up the American workforce, making its impact felt across the entire economy. Fear of robots runs especially deep in blue-collar lunchrooms and union halls, from agriculture and warehouse work to assembly line and factory jobs.

Longshore workers at the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle are certainly part of that trend. So it’s only natural they would eye automation suspiciously, determined to preserve high-wage, good-benefit jobs that have sustained generations of Puget Sound families who work hard on the waterfront.

But a piece of legislation they’re fighting for in Olympia this year is short-sighted and overly defensive. It would block Washington’s 75 public port districts from spending their funds on fully automated cargo-handling equipment.

Tying the hands of port leaders and their shipping partners doesn’t make sense, particularly at a time when the Tacoma and Seattle ports are trying to claw back the market share they’ve lost to California and Canada over the last decade.

Regaining a competitive edge is exactly why both local ports formed the Northwest Seaport Alliance in 2015. Legislators shouldn’t undermine those efforts now by approving House Bill 2828 or its companion measure, Senate Bill 6535. On Friday, HB2828 passed out of the House Local Government Committee by a 4-3 vote.

Sure, they may sympathize with the crane operators, straddle carrier drivers and other longshore workers who came to the Capitol this week, filling three dozen seats in a public hearing. The Pacific Northwest longshore union is loud and proud, including nearly 1,500 Port of Tacoma workers who comprise ILWU Local 23.

But resisting technology is futile and potentially self-defeating. Adapting to it, like dockworkers did at the dawn of the container ship era in the 1960s, is the way to go.

The best plan for preserving family-wage jobs in Tacoma? Give ports enough flexibility to grow and attract more business; don’t fight against advances that can help move freight more quickly, smoothly and safely.

Cleaner air is another positive result of automation, as diesel engines gradually give way to all-electric technology. (Say what you will about a controversial LNG plant, but more automation of cargo operations is the true path to a smaller carbon footprint at the Port of Tacoma.)

Without a doubt, the automation of global marine container ports is accelerating. Los Angeles is ahead of the curve; not only is it the busiest container terminal in the U.S., it’s also the first fully automated port on the West Coast, experimenting with everything from artificial intelligence to driverless trucks.

A backlash from California labor advocates has been strong. Now it’s sweeping north.

But longshore unions already have a powerful tool: the leverage to negotiate favorable contracts. In 2017, after a months-long port slowdown that paralyzed freight movement on the West Coast, ILWU members ratified a contract extension; it ends in July 2022, so there’s plenty of time for union reps to raise reasonable technology concerns before the next agreement.

There’s also plenty of time for workers to develop skills for jobs of the future, whether at the port or somewhere else.

Work guarantees and retraining of any displaced workers will be part of future negotiations, according to Jordan Royer of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, who spoke at House and Senate committee hearings in Olympia this week.

He also said automation investments at the Tacoma and Seattle ports would happen more slowly, in light of the smaller market share here compared to ports in British Columbia and Southern California.

The Pacific Northwest is due for a bigger slice of that pie. How do we get it?

Tacoma Port Commission President John McCarthy testified before a congressional subcommittee in January, pleading for more federal freight infrastructure spending.

With container ships tripling in capacity over the last decade, he noted that Tacoma and other American deepwater ports will have to spend billions to modernize.

“Our cargo activity employs over 58,000 people,” McCarthy said of the Seaport Alliance. “But our focus is much bigger, with hundreds of thousands of jobs across rural and urban areas that depend on our facilities.”

Obviously, then, longshore workers aren’t the only stakeholders. Ensuring that Washington state has competitive ports will require some give and take, finding an equilibrium between human labor and automation.

“We don’t want to be replaced by robots,” said Cager Clabaugh, a longshoreman with ILWU Local 4, Vancouver, while speaking to a state House committee Tuesday.

Of course not. No worker with a good-paying job does. But prohibiting public ports from investing in automation won’t make the robots go away. Just, perhaps, the shipping customers.