To begin with, you can't exercise workers' rights if you don't have work. But it also has a market effect. Reducing the large unemployment pool also brings with it greater negotiating capacity for well organized workers. We should be able to combine both perspectives for the benefit of all. Work takes many forms, in many places and under many different conditions.
People earn a living in the factory, farm, home or street.
A lot of work is not measured by economists, and so becomes invisible. Whatever the situation, every person who works has rights. Securing rights at work is essential for creating decency at work, by which I mean work that is productive and obtained in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity. These rights aren't fringe benefits to be gained at a later date or when the economic conditions are convenient. They have to be in on the ground floor.