This debate emerged many decades ago. Here is one example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASEA_IRB
"The ASEA IRB is an industrial robot series for material handling, packing, transportation, polishing, welding, and grading. Built in 1975, the robot allowed movement in 5 axes with a lift capacity of 6 kg. It was the world's first fully electrically driven and microprocessor-controlled robot, using Intel's first chipset."
What is reported now was also reported then, for fear of losing jobs. Robots fears are nothing new.
Isn't Metropolis from 1927 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017136/, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(film)) and Frankenstein (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein) from 1818 about this too in a way.
Technophobia.
Humans tend to work around these issues.