Unions in the Tech Sector? 217
nanogeek asks: "I've worked for a few years in the computing infrastructure/support department of a large university. In my time here, there have been organizational movements and/or strikes by many segments of the employee and student population (librarians walking out, grad-students seeking a fair wage for TA responsibilities, etc). However, none of this fervor for collective bargaining and fair treatment by the upitty-ups seems to have touched our department; and this seems to be rather endemic to geekjobs. In a year when commerce was brought to a halt on the west coast over a dispute about the change in the use of technology in the shipping industry, I have seen my department and my co-workers displaced, disrespected, displeased, and occasionally dismissed over the same kinds of technological shifts (in both my case and that of the longshoremen, the changes require retraining and reshuffling of workload, manpower, and payment). Common complaints have been that we were never consulted before these changes were enacted, and I wonder if a powerful union could be the answer. Is there room for such labor organization amongst geeks? Does the mutability of the technology involved preclude the kind of stasis brought about by unionization? Does the status of the economy currently make it so that any attempt at such broad-based organization could be circumvented by black-listing and purging members from the rolls? Or could a powerful geekunion bring about a sea-change after which a modicum of parity between the bosses and the drones could be established?"
Re:Unions - a different take (Score:2, Funny)
Pray they have a good dental plan.
I couldn't agree more with the H1B Visa abuse. Unfortunately, I have seen people who have a dollar for every time they abuse an H1B, and they all drive Mercedes.
I know too many people that have lost their job, destroying the cohesiveness and effectiveness of a department, just so management could look good by showing they saved a few hundred dollars by outsourcing projects offshore (Getting undocumented crap).
The last one I don't agree with. There was a lot of fat in the industry that needed to be trimmed, and it is down to the bone.
There are a lot of problems with the tech sector (Engineering and IT, both of which are very different). Uniting in a union might solve problems, and Unions don't always prop up the "underachievers", people just like to see the worst-case scenarios.
Making an IT/Engineering Union just will not work, though. People must be willing to risk their entire livelihoods to start a union from scratch. Most Unions in the past were created to force management to make working conditions safer.
Unless computers become deadly-killing-machines soon, I don't think ENOUGH people will be willing to risk it all to start a union.