It's going to fail regardless. Automation will happen. This might be their last bite at the apple. They could promise $100 per hour. It wouldn't matter if there's a machine doing the job. The only chance that they have is now.
It seems to me that in that situation when you know you are doomed to fail in the long run, the smart move would be to negotiate for more money, guarantees for a certain number of jobs for a certain time period, and for the employers to fund free training to train guys to work with the new automated systems or pay for them to be trained for other job markets.