To be fair I probably didn't pick the best example. Blacksmiths are still needed by the very small number of well-off people who enjoy horse ownership. When you have a horse that needs shoeing, you want to hire a craftsman who was trained by their predecessors to uphold a venerable and specialized tradition, not some incompetent rando who is going to injure your horse or get themselves kicked in the head.

Then, once the job's done, you want that person off your payroll and out of your life. You don't care too much about the cost of labor, you just need it done right the first time. I can imagine a craft union being suitable for providing access to that kind of labor.

But driving cars and trucks around... yeah, no, that's a robot's job, sorry.

There is no such thing as higher wages without a corresponding increase in price or decrease in profits. Amazon could handle a delivery drivers' union - but on the other end you have groups like the ILWU who are single handedly responsible for the US coming last in any measure of port efficiency in the developed world.

Then, when the ILWU strikes, they get to hold the entire economy for ransom and extract concessions for a job that all of America would benefit from automating.

How is that not a net negative?