South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group plans to deploy humanoid robots in factories around the world, triggering a strong backlash from the company's union, which warned the move would have a "huge employment impact." The union stated that robots should not be introduced into any production site without reaching an agreement with management.
Hyundai Motor Group showed off the Atlas humanoid robot developed by its subsidiary Boston Dynamics at the CES show earlier this month and announced plans to build a factory with an annual output of 30,000 robots by 2028. According to the plan, Atlas will be deployed at the Georgia factory in the United States in 2028, and then expanded to all Hyundai production bases around the world.
After the news was announced, the capital market responded quickly and positively, and Hyundai's stock price hit a new high. However, in stark contrast to the surge in stock prices, Hyundai labor unions are extremely dissatisfied with this automation plan, accusing the company of using robots to increase profits and reduce manpower. The union emphasized in a statement that employees will never welcome this plan because the deployment of robots will have a huge impact on employment.
In response to external concerns about the impact on employment, Hyundai has continued the industry's consistent statement, saying that Atlas is designed to reduce the physical burden on workers and undertake potentially dangerous types of work. Yet the union believes the real consideration lies in long-term cost optimization: A robot like Atlas costs about $9,500 a year to maintain, far less than an average worker’s annual salary, and the robots don’t require sick days, annual leave, rest breaks or breaks between meals and bathroom breaks. Unions charge that this provides a perfect excuse for "capitalists who maximize profits from a long-term perspective."
The union also criticized Hyundai's strategy of continuing to expand overseas production capacity, especially in the United States. Hyundai said its Georgia plant plans to increase annual production capacity to 500,000 vehicles by 2028 to meet growing demand in the U.S. market. From the perspective of labor unions, this kind of external expansion coupled with the deployment of robots will further weaken the bargaining position and employment stability of local workers.
The controversy over the use of robots to replace labor in manufacturing is not unique to modern times. It was reported last year that Amazon plans to replace about 600,000 U.S. warehouse workers with robots. Its internal robotics team hopes to automate 75% of the company's operations by 2027, thereby eliminating approximately 160,000 positions that were originally performed by humans. Amazon later responded that robots would not replace workers, but while making this assurance, it also announced two new warehouse robots that were clearly aimed at replacing humans, causing public opinion to question the credibility of its statement.
At a time when generative artificial intelligence has triggered a big discussion about whether white-collar jobs will disappear, these conflicts surrounding humanoid robots and factory automation are highlighting another equally sharp line of controversy: how long can blue-collar jobs at industrial sites be "condescended" to machines.