BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — China is accelerating adoption of robotics and artificial intelligence in manufacturing while courts are simultaneously limiting how companies can use those technologies to replace workers.
ZHENGZHOU, China—An employee at Foxconn’s electronics manufacturing operation here committed suicide by jumping off a building at the complex. The death comes after Foxconn had worked to improve labor conditions following a series of suicides in 2010 and 2011, mostly at the company’s Shenzhen factory.
BEIJING — In one factory in southern China, sleeping on the job is not frowned upon. In fact, it's being strongly encouraged by management. Workers at the computer hardware factory in the Dongguan have been encouraged to use two ten minute breaks to rest their eyes and sleep.
SHANGHAI, China—Medical experts have concluded that working conditions at contract manufacturer Pegatron Corp.’s assembly plant here did not lead to the death from pneumonia of a 15-year-old boy who had lied to gain employment. The facility makes the iPhone for Apple Inc.
BEIJING—Young people in China don’t want to work in factories, they want to work in services or at Internet companies, says Terry Gou, CEO of contract manufacturer Foxconn.
SHENZHEN, China—Foxconn, which was plagued by worker suicides a few years ago, has denied a report that a female employee jumped from the roof of one of its assembly plants here last week.
GUANGZHOU, China—In an irony of China’s growing middle class, factory jobs go begging while many educated young workers are unemployed or underemployed. A national survey of urban residents showed that among people in their early 20s, those with a college degree were four times as likely to be unemployed as those with only an elementary school education.
