Potential For Peace? A Robot Just Promised It Will Not Take This Factory Worker’s Job
As robots and automation assume a larger role in our lives, manual labourers are finding it increasingly difficult to find a place in the modern economy. But recent events at a Boeing airplane assembly plant in Washington might soon change all that. Sources say that a robot walked into the company’s Everett factory on Thursday and promised that it would not take the job of long time production worker Dana Rider.
Could this be the beginning of better relations between robot and human workers?
“Today I walked into the factory and gave Dana my word that I would not take her job—not now, not in the future, not ever,” said KP-765, an 8E Model assembly line robot designed by TUKA, a German robotics firm.
“Dana’s job security, benefits and pension are safe from me.”
“I am very thankful to this robot for promising not to take my job,” said Rider, who has worked in Boeing’s Everett plant for more than 15 years.
“Instead of competing for the same jobs, we should help one another. I think there’s a lot we can learn from each other.”
Rider and the robot shook hands and embraced in front of reporters on Thursday morning.
Boeing declined to comment on the matter.
