Dozens of new robot arms have been installed at General Motors’ flagship electric vehicle factory in Detroit — even as 1,300 workers remain out of work due to temporary layoffs. The latest automation push has prompted union protests over a potentially existential issue for automakers and their workers.
General Motors installed about 50 robot arms at GM’s Factory Zero plant in Detroit, Michigan, Crain’s Detroit Business reports. Manufactured by Japanese robotics company FANUC, the robot is designed to help add various components to vehicles during the assembly line process. But leaders of the United Auto Workers (UAW), the primary U.S. union for autoworkers, reacted with anger to the new robotic presence, noting that GM has yet to recall any workers affected by the reported temporary layoffs in March.
More than 1,000 union members are still “indefinitely out of a job,” James Cotton, president of UAW Local 22, told The Detroit News. He said the company could bring some of those members back to work instead of installing 50 robots.
The temporary layoffs were preceded by permanent layoffs involving another 1,200 workers at GM’s Factory Zero in October 2025.
Many automakers, including Stellantis NV and Ford Motor Co., have deployed assembly-line robots such as Fanuc robot arms as they push to automate more of their U.S. operations. Hyundai Motor Co. plans to deploy Atlas humanoid robots made by Boston Dynamics — which Hyundai acquired in 2020 — to begin working at the automaker’s flagship EV facility in Georgia by 2028.
Andrew Bergman, a Local 22 member and union organizer who was among those fired by GM, described corporate leaders in the automotive industry as prioritizing profits over human workers.
“Technological advances have the potential to make work safer for the working class and provide workers with shorter work weeks without losing pay,” Bergman told The Detroit News. “But in the hands of owners and billionaires it is used to drive profits and lay off workers.”
The Detroit News also highlighted how corporate leaders and activists delivered “surprisingly different messages” about AI, robotics and automation during separate gatherings held in Detroit during the same week in June.
While the Reindustrialize Summit included speeches from startup founders about how robots can “empower our industrial base with superhuman manufacturing”, at the UAW Constitutional Convention UAW President Shawn Fenn warned against “the threat of humanoid robotics and mass automation” undermining workers’ employment and wages at a time of growing wealth inequality.
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