I used to work with a guy who told me that he'd worked with a guy who would handwrite his programs on graph paper. When told that he could type them himself, he replied that there were operators for that. I got the image of a room full of secretaries typing out dictation.

I've heard that in some countries, computer folks are considered sort of lowly. They're a dime a dozen, interchangeable.

I can see the parallels you mention (highly skilled). That said, I've never considered programming to be a blue collar job. The Blue-collar worker article on Wikipedia mentions manual labor and distinguishes white and blue from service workers who are not highly paid and also do not perform manual labor. Maybe that would be a good fit.