GM Korea union puts brakes on AI adoption, raising productivity concerns

The union at General Motors' Korean operations has moved to slow the company's adoption of artificial intelligence during ongoing wage and collective bargaining negotiations. The union is demanding that the scope of AI agent use — including in office work, not just on the factory floor — be decided through joint labor-management consultations. Some in the industry warn the union's opposition could delay AI deployment at a time when competition over automation and productivity is intensifying across the automaking sector.

According to labor and automotive industry sources Thursday, the GM Korea union recently argued in wage and collective bargaining talks that the use of the AI agent Glean in office work must be subject to joint labor-management agreement. "If AI is used for worker evaluations, productivity analysis or information gathering, it could lead to human rights violations and job insecurity," the union said, adding that prior explanation and consultation between labor and management are necessary before AI is introduced or deployed.

Glean is an enterprise AI platform that consolidates data scattered across Google Drive, Gmail, Slack and other tools, enabling AI agents to operate on that unified data. AI agents built through Glean can go beyond answering questions to automating work tasks outright.

The company said current use of the AI agent is limited to supporting office tasks such as searching internal information. It introduced Glean last year in line with directives from its US headquarters to improve workplace productivity, and has no plans to use AI to replace production workers.

The union is also pushing back against automation demands placed on suppliers. GM Korea recently held a briefing for its tier-one suppliers on the Operations Automation Maturity Index (OAMI), a global GM metric measuring the level of production automation. The index is understood to target AI-based autonomous process operations over the medium to long term, and is expected to be applied domestically in supplier evaluations starting with the next vehicle model's development.

On this, the union is calling for the creation of a "supply chain sustainability committee" to deliberate on the matter. It wants GM Korea's labor and management, supplier labor and management, local governments and consumers to participate in the body, meeting twice a year to address supply chain issues.

The union's stance reflects the Korean Metal Workers' Union's AI guidelines translating directly into bargaining demands. The metal workers' union, to which the GM Korea chapter belongs, had earlier put forward a common set of demands requiring companies to notify the union in advance before introducing AI into work processes or personnel management, and to conduct joint labor-management assessments of the impact on employment and working conditions beforehand.

With the union slowing AI adoption, some observers worry that GM Korea could fall behind in productivity innovation. The company has been modernizing its production facilities through a total investment of 880 billion won ($572 million) that began late last year. The introduction of Glean and the application of OAMI are both being pursued as tools to drive operational innovation and productivity gains.

"Production costs in Korea have risen sharply compared to other manufacturing bases, driven by wage increases and inflation," an official at one automaker said. "If Korea falls behind on automation due to union opposition at a time when competition in domestic and overseas auto markets is intensifying, the standing of Korea as a production base will weaken."