Foxconn will replace 60,000 robots
The company has been criticized many times for poor working and living conditions. There was a solution.
The fact that in factories and hostels of Foxconn, a leading global manufacturer of electronic components, is not as good as the company says, it was said more than once. Critics have argued that it’s difficult for workers to perform monotonous duties for many hours without interruption, and the hostels provided by the company are not too different from the prison barracks.
Yes, and the suicide rate of Foxconn employees is quite high. The company responded to criticism that the living and working conditions would be improved. And now the Foxconn management has decided to start implementing a plan to optimize working conditions in their factories. The main point of this plan is the dismissal of 60,000 people, all of whom are employees of the same factory, Kyunshan (Jiangsu Province). They plan to replace people with robots, which do not ask for anything and cost the company less than Chinese workers. In addition to Foxconn, about 600 companies are planning to automate their production.
A spokesman for the company said : “The Foxconn factory reduces the number of employees from 110,000 to 50,000, thanks to robots. This will reduce the cost of labor ... Other companies will follow our example. ”
The problem is not onlythat the company wants to reduce labor costs. The fact is that at the same factory in 2014 there was an explosion that killed 146 workers. The reason - a violation of safety. After that, the government demanded to stop increasing the staff (which did not allow to increase production capacity). This goes against the interests of the company. In addition, the government of Taiwan was invested in production. After the accident, the government pledged to subsidize companies that use robots in production. Investments in the automation of labor are quite high - about 2 billion yuan per year (approximately $ 300 million).
Foxconn and other Taiwanese companies have already spent more than 4 billion yuan ($ 610 million) on the robotization of their factories. This money went not only to replace people on the conveyors with robots, but also to research in the field of artificial intelligence.
Replacing tens of thousands of people with robots can cause social problems in the region. About 2.4 million people work in Kyunshan now, most of them are migrant workers.
The fact that in factories and hostels of Foxconn, a leading global manufacturer of electronic components, is not as good as the company says, it was said more than once. Critics have argued that it’s difficult for workers to perform monotonous duties for many hours without interruption, and the hostels provided by the company are not too different from the prison barracks.
Yes, and the suicide rate of Foxconn employees is quite high. The company responded to criticism that the living and working conditions would be improved. And now the Foxconn management has decided to start implementing a plan to optimize working conditions in their factories. The main point of this plan is the dismissal of 60,000 people, all of whom are employees of the same factory, Kyunshan (Jiangsu Province). They plan to replace people with robots, which do not ask for anything and cost the company less than Chinese workers. In addition to Foxconn, about 600 companies are planning to automate their production.
A spokesman for the company said : “The Foxconn factory reduces the number of employees from 110,000 to 50,000, thanks to robots. This will reduce the cost of labor ... Other companies will follow our example. ”
The problem is not onlythat the company wants to reduce labor costs. The fact is that at the same factory in 2014 there was an explosion that killed 146 workers. The reason - a violation of safety. After that, the government demanded to stop increasing the staff (which did not allow to increase production capacity). This goes against the interests of the company. In addition, the government of Taiwan was invested in production. After the accident, the government pledged to subsidize companies that use robots in production. Investments in the automation of labor are quite high - about 2 billion yuan per year (approximately $ 300 million).
Foxconn and other Taiwanese companies have already spent more than 4 billion yuan ($ 610 million) on the robotization of their factories. This money went not only to replace people on the conveyors with robots, but also to research in the field of artificial intelligence.
Replacing tens of thousands of people with robots can cause social problems in the region. About 2.4 million people work in Kyunshan now, most of them are migrant workers.