Foxconn - the future of Chinese Labour is mass unemployment

Foxconn employs lots of people

Foxconn has 13 factories in nine Chinese cities—more than in any other country.^[20]
Foxconn's largest factory worldwide is in Longhua, Shenzhen, where hundreds of thousands of workers (varying counts include 230,000,^[19] 300,000,^[21] and 450,000^[22]) are employed at the Longhua Science & Technology Park, a walled campus^[6] sometimes referred to as "Foxconn City"^[23] or "iPod City".^[24] Covering about 1.16 square miles (3 square km),^[25] it includes 15 factories,^[23] worker dormitories, a swimming pool,^[26] a fire brigade,^[6] its own television network (Foxconn TV),^[6] and a city centre with a grocery store, bank, restaurants, bookstore, and hospital.^[6] While some workers live in surrounding towns and villages, others live and work inside the complex;^[27] a quarter of the employees live in the dormitories, and many of them work up to 12 hours a day for 6 days each week.^[19] Another of Foxconn's factory "cities" is Zhengzhou Technology Park in Zhengzhou, Henan province, where it is reported 120,000 employees work.

But they're not happy

(October 7, 2012) Foxconn, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer that makes products for Apple, has been hit by a second bout of labour unrest in less than two weeks as one of its largest factories in China is hurrying to churn out the latest iPhone.
More than 200 quality control employees at the plant in Zhengzhou, a central Chinese city, refused to work on Friday in protest over their high-pressure work conditions, the company said on Sunday.

Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer by revenue, said large numbers of production-line workers had resisted strict quality requirements introduced in connection with production of the iPhone 5. Some quality control staff told the FT that they had been threatened by workers. Some workers said one quality controller had been beaten, but that could not be confirmed.
The Zhengzhou plant is one of two Foxconn factories in the country that makes the iPhone 5. Foxconn has not officially commented on the size of its workforce there, but human resources officials at the plant said it now employs close to 200,000 workers.
“The incident was triggered by an emotional standoff between quality control personnel and production-line workers,” said Foxconn. “After we addressed the issues, people on the [Friday] day shift resumed work, and there was basically no impact on the production lines.”
Since orders for Apple’s latest gadget started coming earlier this year, Foxconn has battled chronic labour shortages in manning its huge production lines in China.
The ramp-up of the Zhengzhou plant since 2010 is part of Foxconn’s gradual shift of its manufacturing operation to China’s inland provinces, a strategy which the company hoped could address rising labour costs and labour shortages. But some of the new plants, have met the same problems as the company’s largest factory in Shenzhen, the export hub next to Hong Kong.
This comes as labour unrest is generally on the rise in China, with young workers less willing to sacrifice their personal lives for meagre savings, and more aware of their rights.
The Zhengzhou dispute follows a riot at Foxconn’s plant in Taiyuan in late September. More than 2,000 workers in that factory – which makes iPhone components – smashed shop windows, overturned cars and burnt a police post following a brawl between workers and security guards.

So let's replace them with robots

Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer by revenue, plans to have as many robots as workers in its China factories within three years, according to Terry Gou, chairman and chief executive.
Foxconn, China’s biggest employer, produce Apple’s iPad and other electronic gadgets. The group currently employs 1m workers but has just 10,000 robots on its production lines.

Mr Gou outlined the company’s ambitious automation plans at a Foxconn gathering late last week in Shenzhen, a coastal manufacturing centre in southern China. According to people who attended the function, the chief executive said the group would have up to 300,000 robots next year and 1m by 2013, highlighting the drastic changes China-based manufacturers are making as competition for labour increases.