This article explores the interrelationship between global production networks(GPNs) and free trade agreements (FTAs) in the South Korean auto industry and its employment relations. It focuses on the production network of the Hyundai Motor Group (HMG) — the third biggest automobile manufacturer in the world — and the FTA between the EU and South Korea. This was the first of the EU’s ‘new generation’ FTAs, which among other things contained provisions designed to protect and promote labour standards. The article’s argument is twofold. First, that HMG’s production network and Korea’s political economy (of which HMG is a crucial part) limited the possibilities for the FTA’s labour provisions to take effect. Second, that the commercial provisions in this same FTA simultaneously eroded HMG’s domestic market and corporate profitability, leading to adverse consequences for auto workers in the more insecure and low-paid jobs. In making this argument, the article advances a multiscalar conceptualization of the labour regime as an analytical intermediary between GPNs and FTAs. It also provides one of the first empirical studies of the EU–South Korea FTA in terms of employment relations, drawing on 105 interviews with trade unions, employer associations, automobile companies and state officials across both parties.

中文翻译：

---

韩国的汽车劳工制度、现代汽车的全球生产网络以及与欧盟的贸易一体化

本文探讨了韩国汽车工业中全球生产网络 (GPN) 和自由贸易协定 (FTA) 之间的相互关系及其雇佣关系。它专注于现代汽车集团（HMG）的生产网络——世界第三大汽车制造商——以及欧盟和韩国之间的自由贸易协定。这是欧盟“新一代”自由贸易协定中的第一个，其中包含旨在保护和促进劳工标准的条款。文章的论点是双重的。首先，HMG 的生产网络和韩国的政治经济（HMG 是其中的关键部分）限制了 FTA 劳工条款生效的可能性。其次，同一个 FTA 中的商业条款同时侵蚀了 HMG 的国内市场和企业盈利能力，导致从事更不安全和低薪工作的汽车工人的不利后果。在提出这一论点时，本文提出了将劳动制度作为 GPN 和 FTA 之间的分析中介的多尺度概念化。它还提供了欧盟-韩国自由贸易协定在雇佣关系方面的首批实证研究之一，借鉴了对双方工会、雇主协会、汽车公司和国家官员的 105 次访谈。