Dozens of new robotic arms have been installed at General Motors’ flagship electric car factory in Detroit — even as 1,300 workers are out of a job following temporary layoffs. The latest automation push has prompted union pushback over a potential existential problem for automakers and their workers.
General Motors has installed about 50 robotic arms at GM’s Factory Zero plant in Detroit, Michigan. Crain’s Detroit Business. Developed by Japanese robotics company FANUC, the robots are designed to help attach various components to cars in the assembly line process. But leaders of the United Auto Workers (UAW), the main union for US auto workers, reacted angrily to the new robot presence, given that GM has yet to recall any of the allegedly affected workers. temporary layoffs in March.
James Cotton, president of UAW Local 22, said more than 1,000 union members are still “indefinitely furloughed.” Detroit news. Instead of installing 50 robots, the company may put some of those members back to work, he said.
There were temporary layoffs before permanent cuts Hiring another 1,200 workers at GM’s Factory Zero in October 2025.
Many car manufacturers, including Stellantis NV and Ford Motor CompanyThey have deployed assembly line robots like Fanuc robotic arms as they seek to automate more of their US operations. Atlas, developed by Hyundai Motor Company, plans to deploy humanoid robots Boston Dynamics-Hyundai’s acquisition in 2020-to get to work by 2028 at the automaker’s flagship EV plant in Georgia.
Local 22 member and union organizer Andrew Bergman, who was among those fired by GM, characterized corporate leaders in the auto industry as putting profits over human workers.
“Technological advances have the potential to make work safer for the working class and allow workers to work shorter work weeks without losing wages,” Bergman told The Detroit News. “But in the hands of bosses and billionaires, it is used to increase profits and lay off workers.”
The Detroit News also highlighted how corporate leaders and employees delivered “strikingly different messages” about artificial intelligence, robotics and automation during separate gatherings in Detroit during the same week in June.
while Reindustrialization Summit Startup founder talks about how robots can “power our industrial base with superhuman manufacturing,” UAW Constitutional Convention The UAW president spoke Shawn Fain warning against the “threat of humanoid robotics and mass automation” that is undermining worker employment and wages at a time when wealth inequality is rising.
