Unions are an interesting case. For them I actually agree that it was THE MAN that created them...by simply looking at dead and maimed workers as nothing more than a machine that breaks down. THE MAN asked for it...and safety standards were needed.
But we are TOTAL WIMPS in what we allowed them to become. It’s hard to believe, but after Pearl Harbor FDR had to BRIBE union leaders to load cargo ships - the unions should have been DESTROYED at that moment, but they served a political purpose and still do. Get rid of them and this country would see a 10 point swing to towards Republicans in just about every election.
Agree about the start of the unions in the 1880s. There were terrible abuses of humans — 72 hour workweeks in Carnegie’s steel mills and wage cuts to further improve profits. Though dangerous work and dead workers were just tossed aside. It was man caused, but also again the rise of the machine and technological upheaval. The world had never before seen that scale of mechanical innovation. So many of our ills can be traced back to the rise of human ingenuity and how it accelerated during and after the industrial revolution.