Migrant Workers in China Face Competition from Robots
an eventual labor shift similar to "the decline of seamstresses or the secretarial pool in America." .... some experts believe the company may be developing its own robots in house..... Most spend their days seated beside a conveyer belt, wearing white gowns, face masks, and hairnets so that stray hairs and specks of dust won't interfere as they perform simple but precise tasks, again and again. Each worker focuses on a single action, like putting stickers on the front of an iPhone or packing a finished product into a box. ..... it takes five days and 325 steps to assemble an iPad..... A robot can be operated 160 hours a week. Even assuming competition from nimble-fingered humans putting in 12-hour shifts, a single robot might replace two workers, and possibly as many as four. ..... industrial robotics "is about to get very hot in China."
Have you heard the line? "I trained my replacement." Looks like
FoxConn workers are being asked to build their replacements. I guess this is not exactly Gandhi's
khadi movement.
