I have to say that I prefer Civ3 Workers. I understand that they sometimes get annoyed and hard to manage, but the latest patch made this easier with the stack command. Despite this fact, and even considering that the AI will never manage them as good as a human would, I prefer workers because of its strategic uses.
In CTP2, you cannot build public works outside your national borders, and with the worker unit there is no such a restriction, therefore you can send some workers to build roads connecting you and another civ, thus allowing trade and commerce.
And workers are great units to function as "bait", when you want to divert enemy forces to a "kill zone", since the AI has an insatiable apettite for workers. But I realize that this is an AI flaw, one that is easily exploitable.
And workers have another interesting use: they may be added to the population of recently conquered cities, somehow alleviating the pressure put on you because of culture flipping and unhappiness.