How autoworkers are retraining for the robot revolution

By Summer Ballentine and Luke Ramseth, The Detroit News

General Motors Co. worker Annie Ignaczat spent years walking in circles on concrete factory floors, assembling the same parts and counting down hundreds of pieces she and her coworkers needed to finish before lunch.

“You’re doing the same movement hundreds, if not thousands, of times every day for the week,” Ignaczat said. “It wears your body down.”

Work at GM’s Parma metal plant near Cleveland, Ohio, was monotonous, she said, and the risks of knee and shoulder replacements caused by the stress of repeated movements were well known.

Over time, Ignaczat watched the facility become more automated, adding new robots to complete the same tasks that she once performed. She didn’t immediately see another option for herself until co-work