no agency or are uniformly of one mindset, protecting the company at all costs
One comment is anecdotal. A million is a statistic.
If you’re suggesting different, then I’d point you to the word ‘exception’, and also suggest that HR has an image problem deeply rooted in a conflict of interest that it needs to solve. And if it wants to support the workers it will need to be funded by the workers to remove that conflict, and once it supports and is supported by the workers in a group, it’s a union.
If we still have democracy in 2025 then we can safely protest for policy change.