The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday, Nov. 20, edition that this week's economic reports, earnings and labour disruptions reveal new challenges for workers and employers. The Globe's guest columnist Chris Wilson-Smith writes that Canada Post workers are on strike over wages and automation issues. The pandemic has accelerated changes in competition, technology and globalization, increasing anxieties among Canada's workers. Memorial University labour professor Gordon Cooke says, "Those three broad influences are rippling below the surface because they shape the degree of power that workers have individually or collectively." The push to prevent machines from displacing humans in the workplace has intensified, as the pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital technologies, according to a McKinsey & Co. report. Companies are turning to automation and artificial intelligence to survive a strained economy, leaving workers anxious about their job security and ability to provide for their families. Dr. Cooke says from the employers' perspective management has to be at least "directionally competitive." That means finding efficiencies through technological adoption.