Hyundai Workers Strike Over Atlas Robots as Humanoids Edge Onto Factory Floors

The partial strike at Hyundai's Ulsan complex, the world's largest automotive plant, began after 15 rounds of negotiations failed. The Korea Times reported that day and night shifts ended two hours early from July 13 to July 15, and that four-hour strikes are planned from July 20 to 22. The Wall Street Journal, cited by Ars Technica, described the action as the car industry's first factory stoppage over humanoid robots.

Atlas set it off. Hyundai Motor Group showed off the latest version of the two-legged robot at the start of this year. It stands more than 6 feet tall and can lift over 100 pounds. Boston Dynamics builds it, the US robotics company about to become a wholly owned Hyundai subsidiary. The Korea Herald reported that Hyundai aims to deploy more than 25,000 Atlas robots across Hyundai and Kia plants, starting with US factories in 2028. The company has not disclosed a timeline for other markets. The economics are the argument, and they cut both ways for the workers now on the picket line.

Samsung Securities analyst Esther Yim told Bloomberg that each Atlas costs an estimated $130,000 and may pay for itself within about two years.

James Hong of Macquarie Securities Korea suggested that if the cost eventually falls to $100,000, the robot's operating cost could drop below the US federal minimum wage of $7.25 and undercut a typical auto worker's salary by a wide margin. Hyundai's union, which represents more than 39,000 South Korean workers, wants production workers' hourly pay shifted to a fixed salary to cushion any automation-driven cut in hours. It also wants the retirement age raised from 60 to 65 and bigger bonuses, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Georgia first, and a less unionized floor

Hyundai's first Atlas deployment is planned for Metaplant America, its electric vehicle factory outside Savannah, Georgia, starting in 2028. The company may face less organized resistance there. The Georgia workers are not unionized, though the United Auto Workers, which represents about 400,000 autoworkers across the US, Canada and Puerto Rico, has been trying to organize the site. The robots would begin by sorting and organizing automotive parts.

Jerald Roach, a general assembly executive at Metaplant, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that humanoids won't threaten the human workforce. He described human hands, with their sense of feel and touch, as necessary for soft parts such as hoses, wires, carpets and trim panels. Under its Georgia economic development deal, Hyundai has committed to 8,100 full-time human workers at the plant by 2031. The deal came with an incentive package worth an estimated $2.1 billion. The AJC found the facility already employed more than 3,800 workers by the end of 2025.

Hyundai is not alone. Tesla is developing Optimus for its EV factories, and BMW has run pilot tests with Figure AI robots in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Chinese automakers including BYD are trying humanoids too. The International Federation of Robotics says more than 1 million robots were already in automotive factories worldwide by 2021, a third of all industrial robots.

The pushback extends beyond Ulsan. The UAW recently criticized General Motors for installing about 50 new robot arms at its flagship Detroit EV factory after laying off more than 1,300 workers as a supposedly temporary measure. At the UAW Constitutional Convention in Detroit in June 2026, president Shawn Fain warned against what Ars Technica's account leaves cut off mid-sentence.