I worked for the union doing construction for 7 years and completely agree if the workers went for training or could do the work themselves without the help of robots id think they were worth the money but fact is if one of the robots break they stand around not knowing what to do. I had to go for training for 5 years to get that money and they taught us the basics so when the plasma cutter breaks you can fabricate the shit with your hands.
Also the auto industry has no non union competition here in the states which cause a huge problem because the companies are fucked and have to just go with whatever they say, if we were to go on strike the contractors would say fuck it shit still needs to be built and would go with the non union employees. This is the worst time for a contract negotiation if the union higher ups had half a brain they would suspend contract talks untill the economy stabilizes and not ask for higher wages when they barely are keeping afloat now. if they were to put off talks help the industry get back on its feet then negotiate when things were good they would get more anyways.