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One of the most powerful labor unions in the United States is furious, as over 1,000 workers at General Motors’ leading Detroit factory are being pushed out to make room for dozens of new robots.
According to Crain’s Detroit Business, the lack of work coincides with the installation of 50 AI-integrated manufacturing robots, which GM installed in its Factory Zero plant, a major all-electric vehicle facility in Detroit. When the industrial robots went online, the UAW says the factory idled the thousand-odd workers, a situation in which employees aren’t allowed to work, but aren’t fully fired either (as Crain’s explains, the vast majority of these workers have functionally been laid off.)
“It’s always a concern when you see a robot coming to a plant, especially after they have laid off over a thousand people,” UAW local 22 president James Cotton told Crain’s. “They say it’s the wave of the future, and if that’s so, they’re taking away jobs from people.”
The 50 robo-arms — which GM euphemistically calls “cobots,” a style of robot designed to work alongside humans — are primarily being used to bolt body panels onto EVs, AutoBlog reported. Designed by the firm Fanuc, the cobots are built to operate at slower speeds, use less power, and contain more emergency-stop triggers than typical assembly-line robots.
Their installation comes after months of forced EV manufacturing slowdowns in an effort to curb overproduction — in other words, to keep the price of GM’s electric vehicles artificially high. That timing suggests GM may be using Factory Zero as a testing grounds for the so-called cobots, which should come as alarming news for autoworkers in Detroit and beyond.
It also comes after some major wins for the UAW. Back in 2023, the 90-year old union secured major wins for workers of the “big three” auto companies Ford, GM, and Stellantis following a strike that lasted over a month. In this light, the massive layoffs can be seen as cost-cutting measures in order to circumvent those concessions and weaken the UAW’s position ahead of some major 2028 contract negotiations.
“Our manpower is being taken away from us,” Cotton told Crain’s. “From top to bottom, we’re disgusted that they have cobots in our plants.”
More on automation: Factory Paying Human Worker to Watch Robot Worker All Day