The threat to jobs caused by the electric vehicle transition isn’t just a hot-button issue in the U.S., where a presidential election campaign is in full swing.

In Japan, the heads of Toyota Motor Corp., which employs around 70,000 staff in the country, are grappling with how the carmaker’s technological transformation will impact not only its workers but the nation’s vast auto supply chain and the thousands of jobs it supports.

In South Korea, Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp.’s moves toward electrification are provoking similar anxieties in that nation’s highly active and organized labor movement.

Hyperdrive sat down in Seoul last week with officials from the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, which represents roughly 180,000 auto workers, including about 70,000 at Hyundai and Kia, the country’s two dominant manufacturers.

The union, formed in 2001, is in the process of negotiating a new annual contract for Hyundai’s vehicle assembly workers and it’s threatened to strike over disagreements on future hiring plans and sharing the spoils of Hyundai’s record profits in 2023. Hyundai’s shares fell 3% on Monday, trimming gains this year to 40.5%.

The conflict has clear echoes of the contentious six-week strike between the United Auto Workers union and the Detroit Three carmakers last fall.

Last week was also the week that at least 23 people, mostly migrant workers from China, died in a fire caused by explosions at a lithium battery plant south of Seoul. The fire, at a factory owned by Aricell, which makes products for industrial and military applications, was the worst accident at a battery plant in the country’s history. In response, the government has formed a task force to improve fire safety measures across the industry.

We asked union officials including policy secretary Kim Sang Min and executive director of international, Hyewon Chong, how they’re dealing with challenges like job losses due to electrification and automation, as well as safety risks as EV battery production expands. The conversation, which was both in Korean and English, has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How do you see the battery fire at the Aricell? Lithium-ion batteries are a key component of EVs, and those killed were mostly migrant workers hired by a third-party company.

A: We have to overhaul safety management systems in light of the incredible risks. If a company is going to bring in temporary, outsourced workers, they have to have a safety management system in place for these people.

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