Employment law in the AI era: the constructive dismissal problem Insights

The July 2, 1978 issue of the New York Times was the final one the paper sent to print under the linotype process. After decades of relying on Gutenburg printing press-style technology, the newspaper invested in a computerized method that would eliminate the need to physically cast each letter of every page into lead plates for the presses. The automation and digitization of the "hot type" process did not leave linotype operators jobless, however. Those same employees who had run the hot metal typesetting machines were sitting in front of computers the next day, typing stories into a digital format rather than hammering them into place. Asked what the technological upgrade would mean for him personally, one employee responded, "it means I'll have to learn a new process."1