The machines are taking our jobs

[mertle]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Its more replacing manual workers with skilled workers to operate the machines and to design/build them. So the bottom end of the workforce is affected.

When I started at walkers crisps in the late 1990s each machine on my production line was manned by 5-9 manual workers about 40-60 per shift usually.

By the time I left about 5 years later the average per machine was down to 3 and about 15 per production line per shift. As there was 4 shifts thats a loss of 180 workers for one production line. the last year of my time there, they were well on the way to automating another production line as well which would have had a higher % drop.

However during this same time period they increased employment of machine technicians. Although it was more like an extra 5 techs for about 40 workers lost. Not 1 for 1.

Its so sad why its happened you shown what happened you now take that add 1,000's factories. People wonder why there no work out there why we got massive unemployment. Yet who the government cracking whips at they pathetic rubbish polititians who scared to tackle real issue.

WHEN this starts to happen in white collar workforce as the MIT suggests we head into BIG BIG ISSUE if we not already there. Maybe MAYBE when this starts GOVERNMENT WILL DO something.

Pace has to be slowed for companies throwing workers out not because work or products would be cheeper ITS maximise profits capitalist greed.

They will use excuses to justify some of the changes.

Damien it can be slowed it will be as they cant continue to carry on this way else we have to change ACCEPT people will have lifetime no jobs.

[Chrysalis]

Yes in the long term its a problem. One side of it I simply see as natural progression, however the other side of it is if ultimately this is widespread and unemployment has a long upwards trend then there will be less money from consumers spent in shops and they they may lose sales so ultimately profit. But as far as walkers crisps goes it is a food product so will have a degree of resistance to recessions. That is probably one reason for new labour's push on further education as they will have been aware manual unskilled work was nosediving.

My city in terms of industry is a ghost town, dozens and dozens of abandoned factories mainly for clothing as that it was doing decades ago, alot of those now been converted to flats as in student areas or areas at low end of rental market, even retail was been affected in mid 2000s before the recession as the city was getting a rep for having empty shops. We had the lowest female wages in england in 2006, no idea if its still the same.