Aicesis Presidency
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20 YEARS 1999 2019 INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCILS AND SIMILAR INSTITUTIONS President Iacob Baciu AICESIS PRESIDENCY SEPTEMBER 2017-OCTOBER 2019 President Iacob Baciu AICESIS PRESIDENCY – SEPTEMBER 2017-OCTOBER 2019 BOARD AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ILO-AICESIS-ESC OF ROMANIA 9 – 11 OCTOBER 2019, BUCHAREST, ROMANIA AICESIS PRESIDENCY BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 2017 AND OCTOBER 2019 President Iacob Baciu I had the privilege and honour of being the President of the International Asso- ciation of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions (AICESIS) for a two-year term, from September 2017 to October 2019, and the main theme of my mandate was the digital revolution. Industry 4.0, as named by Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011, represents the fourth stage of the Industrial Revolution and has brought major changes in the economy, labour relations, labour market, education, significantly influencing social life. The next industrial revolution finds itself on an unknown horizon and is difficult to predict. Humanity has come a long way in seeking its solutions to the problems it faces; history has recorded all the achievements, hesitations, mistakes, conflicts and progress made. Only if we learn from experience will we be able to avoid repeating the mistakes made. The first industrial revolution began at the end of the eighteenth century and in the first decades of the nineteenth century first in England, which managed to remain the world’s first industrial power until the end of the nineteenth century. In France, the industrial revolution evolved slowly, its beginnings dating back to the 1830s. The low demand for industrial products under a predominantly agrarian population meant that the true industrial era began only in 1890. Germany’s industrialization was marked by its political fragmentation; the favourable conditions for the start of the revolution in this field were created during the years 1840-1850. US indus- trial development began in the mid-nineteenth century by applying a multitude of inventions and innovations. The massive arrival of immigrants after 1865 led to a strong development of the American economy and thus around 1900 the US be- BOARD AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY / INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ILO-AICESIS-ESC OF ROMANIA BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, 9 – 11 OCTOBER 2019 1 AICESIS PRESIDENCY 2017-2019 came the first industrial country in the world. Discoveries in the scientific field have prompted the emergence of modern techniques and inventions: • In 1698 Denis Papin invented the steam boiler under pressure; • In 1712 Thomas Newcomen built a steam engine equipped with a piston and a cylinder, but it was not until 1784 that James Watt invented the improved steam engine that inaugurated the industrial revolution. • This was particularly evident in the early textile field. John Kay invented the flying shuttle that allowed the fabrics to be much wider than before. Then in 1765, James Hargreaves invented the torsion machine and in 1789, Edmond Cartwright, the loom. At this moment, England receives the name of “the workshop of the world”; • Major discoveries are also made in other areas, such as metallurgy: Abraham Darby invents coke-based cast iron, Wilkinson steel rolling. These advances have favoured the phenomenon of the “industrial revolution”. The Industrial Revolution was a complex technical process whereby manual labour was replaced by machines. In this mechanized process, the worker’s role is to super- vise, regulate and feed the machine and control the quality. The industrial revolution had the effect of increasing production, developing cities and science. The first sector in which the steam engine was used was the textile industry. The social impact of the industrial revolution marked the development of the social division of labour, new branches of production appeared, new industrial centres, capitalist economic relations were imposed before the feudal societies. There was also the middle class, a category that benefits from reasonable financial gains and has a cautious attitude towards bourgeois or aristocratic elites. There is a big change in clothing and investments for more comfortable homes. Of all social classes, the bourgeoisie asserts itself, which is a basic class of capitalist society. The technical impact provoked a strong impe- tus in the field of inventions, factories appeared and manual work was replaced by mechanized work. An important invention was made in 1760, when James Watt invented the steam engine, which began to be used in various branches of the industry. British inventor and engineer George Stephenson built the first rail- way, and in 1829, the locomotive called “Rack- et”, considered the first cost-effective locomo- tive used as a means of traction on the railway. In general, it can be said that greater volume James Watt’s steam engine and diversity of products led to an increase in the standard of living, but this affected at most the middle class. The lower class con- tinued to have many problems. Wages were low and working conditions dangerous BOARD AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY / INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ILO-AICESIS-ESC OF ROMANIA 2 BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, 9 – 11 OCTOBER 2019 AICESIS PRESIDENCY 2017-2019 and often unhealthy. Cities in constant growth had also become very unhealthy. With more and more people coming from rural areas to urban areas, the localities were overpopulated, with overcrowded sewage systems and homes also very crowd- ed. This has led to a lack of hygiene, to pollution and the spread of disease. In addition, manual labour was replaced by mechanical work, which resulted in a high unemployment rate. However, the conditions for these workers have improved since the mid- dle of the 19th century, along with legislative measures in favour of the working class and the possibility of forming unions. The second industrial revolution began in the late 19th century. Since the first part of the nineteenth century, discoveries and inventions 1912 Ford Model T in the field of electricity and electric cars had experienced a fulminating dynamic. This made the electric motor to be used in the industry at the end of this century. On the other hand, the growing need for products forced the factories to develop contin- uously, which required different methods of production organization than those of factories / workshops at the beginning of the century. The use of electric drive of pro- duction equipment and mass production are based on the division and specialization of activities in the work process using the production lines. The first production line was used in 1870 at the Cincinnati abattoir in the United States. But the best known and most striking moment was the inauguration, in 1913, of the Ford T-series assem- bly line. In 1912, Ford T production was 40,000 pieces in 1914, after the introduction of the assembly line; it had increased to more than 260,000. Another feature of this revolution is the development of the internal combustion engine, which revolution- ized transportation and opened the use of oil as a main source of energy. The third industrial revolution began with technological developments after the Second World War, both in the field of machine tools and the automation of manufacturing process- es, and particularly in the field of microelec- tronics and computing. That was in 1969, when the first logical programmable logic controller (PLC) was built and used, Modicon 084, which revolutionized industrial automation systems. It is a programmable device used to control machines and industrial processes. The third industrial revolution is characterized by the use of electronic systems and information technol- Modicon 084, first PLC ogies, as well as robots in the automation of production. From an energy point of view, the use of nuclear energy is starting to increase significantly. BOARD AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY / INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ILO-AICESIS-ESC OF ROMANIA BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, 9 – 11 OCTOBER 2019 3 AICESIS PRESIDENCY 2017-2019 The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) began with the 8th and 9th dec- ades of the 20th century, when significant progress was made in the field of com- puters, sensors, telecommunications and mass generalization of the Internet. This is characterized by the use of cyber-physical systems in the production processes and their connectivity. The concept of Industry 4.0 was introduced by the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel in 2011, on the occasion of the opening of the Hannover Fair. The advanced technologies specific to the fourth industrial revolution are: the Internet of Things (IoT), data processing and, more recently, cloud manufacturing, additive manufacturing, augmented reality, Big Data, autonomous robots, process simulation, vertical and horizontal systems integration. By applying these new technologies, the moment when the application on the mobile phone will detect, through the sensors, a health problem and transmit the information to the (virtual) doctor, who will prescribe the prescription and transfer it to the pharmacy, which will “print” the medicines and will deliver them to the patient via a drone, it is not far. All of the technologies mentioned in the process described above are being de- veloped or are being implemented. The concepts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are already included in the strate- gic development programs of all developed countries in Europe, America and Asia. Basically, humanity has gone through three industrial revolutions so far, finds itself in the fourth