Criminals ruined the UAW and other powerful unions, before Reagan attacked unions, which doomed them. IMO we need to eliminate politicians who take PAC money, that partly comes from the same criminal enterprises.
How would you protect the workers rights? Since trumper took over and relaxed OSHA many workers have been exposed to dangerious work conditions in chemical plants and mfg jobs.They have no way to protest at this time. Criminals did take over the Unions but the porporations are even worse , at least the workers had some benefits.
All departments of mfg have used robots and AI to reduce dependency of personal but even this equipment requires servicing,. Then there is the service industry itself. These jobs to date cannot be replaced by a robot and just because of the type of job it is they have been underpaid for years. With corporations posting profits in the 20% and 30% ranges it is time to share this profit with those who make it possible.