From the factories of Detroit to the postal warehouses in Shenzhen, a new kind of worker is clocking in — and the humans it’s replacing aren’t going down without a fight.
In late June, thousands of rank-and-file workers in the Korean Metal Workers’ Union voted to authorize a strike in response to Hyundai’s announcement it would deploy over 25,000 humanoid robots across its factories.
Weeks later, that strike is slowing production at a Hyundai factory down to a trickle. According to the Wall Street Journal, the workers began a partial strike after negotiations broke down last week. Starting on Monday, workers refused to work for four hours of each shift, leaving production lines stalled for half the work day.
Per the WSJ, the economic impacts of the strike are stark: the pullback could disrupt production of about 5,000 cars, and cut into Hyundai’s sales revenue by around $135 million. Should Hyundai choose to dig in their heels after the labor action, the union said it could escalate the strike, either by prolonging the length of the strike, upgrading it to a full strike, or both.
