Hyundai Motor workers in South Korea strike to resist humanoid robots entering the plant

This week, Hyundai Motor launched a partial strike. The cause was not overtime pay or raises, but a humanoid robot named Atlas. The union’s stance was firm: unless workers agree, the robot cannot enter the production line.

This is the first time in the global auto industry that a factory has shut down due to a humanoid robot issue.

The demands put forward by the workers were also unprecedented: switching from hourly pay to fixed monthly salaries, raising the retirement age to 65, and adding job security related to AI. Hyundai said Atlas is “collaborative” rather than “a replacement,” but the workers clearly don’t see it that way.