In an ideal world, one would not need labor unions. The robber barons of the 19th Century (Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, Ford, etc) created the necessity for unions in the first place. The auto corporations have morphed into monsters who are beholden to bankers on Wall Street who are only out for the buck . . . and the union bosses are right there with them.
Why can Toyota, Nissan, KIA and Hyundai sell a product that has better fit and finish, runs better, and lasts longer than what the Detroit Three put out . . . the devil is in the details of corporate mismanagement, design incompetence, and compounded by union greed. I have maintained for years that those who design automobiles (particularly the engine and drive train) should have to work in the service garages for the same amount of time they spend creating the monsters they put on the road.
Sorry to all the union folks, but the labor unions as they currently are have long outlived their usefulness. The percentage of robotics in the auto industry today compared with the 1960s - really up through the 1990s - is about the only thing keeping the auto industry afloat. Robots don't need unions, retirement, pensions, medical, or lunch breaks.