Scott to Host Member Roundtable on Automation and Its Impact on Workers of Color in the Transportation Sector

WASHINGTON – Wednesday, April 11th, Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), ranking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, will hold a Member roundtable exploring the impact of autonomous vehicles on workers of color. Members are invited to hear from experts about which jobs are at-risk, how soon the technologies will be adopted, and the types of new jobs that will be created.

WHO:               
Congressman Bobby Scott (VA-03), Ranking Member of the Committee on Education & the Workforce
Spencer Overton, President of the Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies
Susan Helper, Professor at Case Western Reserve University and former Department of Commerce Chief Economist
Robert Chiappetta, Director of Government Affairs at Toyota Motor North America
Samuel Loesche, Legislative Representative at International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Brian Woolfolk, Founding Executive Director of Full Color Future
Other participants to be announced

WHAT: Member roundtable exploring the disparate economic impact of autonomous vehicles and automation in the transportation sector on workers of color.

WATCH: The event will be live-streamed here.            

BACKGROUND: The workers expected to be hardest hit by job losses are those who can least afford it. An Obama White House study found that, “the jobs that are threatened by automation are highly concentrated among lower-paid, lower-skilled, and less-educated workers.” Autonomous vehicles place at-risk the jobs of nearly 3.8 million U.S. workers who make their living driving trucks, taxis, and buses. A recent Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies study found all of those jobs are disproportionately held by people of color. Blacks and Asian Americans are four times more likely than Whites to be taxi drivers or chauffeurs. Blacks are twice as likely, and Latinos one and one-half times as likely, to be truck drivers than hold other jobs.