Slashdot Mirror

Besides working as a consultant, one can work as an employee that is represented by a collective bargaining association. There are thousands of represented engineers and scientists who negotiate together. Many of these unions have contracts with fully paid overtime. We're professionals, like doctors and lawyers, who get paid for every hour worked.

The CWA is also trying to organize IT workers. The Techs Unite mailing list is very busy. They also have regular meetings that local IT workers go to in various cities.

I'm quite happy with this happening. I think the most important thing is that it be recognized that IT work is skilled, professional work, that both the CWA and the companies understand this. Some unions have handled this well like SAG, the actors union - I would say Robert DeNiro is highly skilled, although in a different manner than myself. I would not mind CWA rules that I have to be paid overtime after 40 hours, or be paid to be oncall and so forth however. A union would raise wages (as unions always do), lower overwork (overtime would be paid), lower unemployment (less overworked people means more jobs) and be a very good thing.

Anyhow, there's no one solution for each person in my mind. Whether you at your job or some other guy at another job would benefit from collective bargaining (e.g. joining a union) is a decision best made by the individual. Then there's the professional organizations like the Programmers Guild as well. But it's obvious to me that SOME type of professional organization is needed - I mean every other profession, except maybe McDonalds workers, have some type of professional organization, be it a union or more like the AMA/ADA/ABA. And our bosses sure as hell have Chamber of Commerce like guys in Washington DC making sure H1-Bs visa caps rise, or at least are not lowered and things like this. The ITAA is the main association that does this, Microsoft, Intel, IBM and so forth give them millions a year to mostly screw IT workers in Washington DC. Plus they have a PR department that gets news media articles written that said there was a massive shortage of IT workers in the late 1990's and H1-B visas needed to be raised. In fact that's a standard line they are paid to push like tobacco lobbyists who say smoking is not bad for you, these people are still saying there's a shortage or will be soon, they always say that, they're paid to say that.

Finally I should point out that there is a lot of corporate funding for organizations like the IEEE, USENIX (SAGE), ACM and so forth. In some respects it's kind of ridiculous, it would be like having HMO's pay for and to some extent control the AMA. But anyhow, if you're in these organizations it's good to talk to other people and educate and agitate about it, but there has been internal politic problems in the past, and while doing some of that is good, you should also keep in mind that there are avenues and organizations available to you outside of them, like the Programmers Guild and other organizations. And if you don't like any of them, and know others who are dissatisfied, you can always start your own organization, web site, whatever.

Many of you agree with me, and the important thing at this moment in time is not convincing other IT workers we are right. Not by any means, it's largely a waste of time. What we have to be doing now is finding each other, and organize together, then, collectively, we can present a message from IT workers to IT workers who have a different opinion, and more importantly, that larger body who is indifferent, one reason for their indifference being that they have not been presented with a point of view looking at the things that should be worried about and fought against (and things to fight for) collectively, as an organization, like the ITAA, high H1-B caps, section 1706 of IRS tax code, FLSA being destroyed and so on. The employers are organized and well-funded within the ITAA, and has had many successes, we should be organized to. They're smart enough to organize together, we should be smart and organize as well.

I don't think we're forced into any pre-built mode of organization - we should be building organizations as we see fit. Perhaps organize as doctors do in the AMA and lawyers in the ABA. Perhaps organize in unions like actors in SAG, or technical professionals do in the council of technical unions, CESO. CESO is very interesting, it started in the late 1960's out of a similar downturn to nowadays, except back then it was the aerospace bubble bursting, not the Internet one. Then there's the Programmers Guild, or groups primarily concentrated on lowering the H1-B cap. In fact, Programmers Guild meetings have seen a jump in attendance recently. I could mention IEEE and the like, but they're pretty pathetic, read around how their officers pulled the plug on H1-B measures at the behest of their corporate sponsors. One of the largest reasons this "profession" is in the mess it is is because unlike real professionals like doctors (AMA) and lawyers (ABA), there is no real professional association working for them (for actors I guess it would be SAG, which is a union - the important thing about unions is they do collective bargaining, e.g. wages are not bargained for on an individual basis. People always talk like that lowers wages, but the reverse is true if you look at any statistics - a heavily unionized industry even raises wages for non-unionized people in their industry). I should add I am in facor of more organization, period, and am unconcerned with the form it takes - in fact I'm glad we have all stripes of organizations competing for membership, from the somewhat conservative but effective Programmers Guild type organizations, through the Washtech/CWA type unions, on to the really radical IWW IU 560. You don't like unions? Join the Programmer's Guild. You want a union? Hook up with Washtech/CWA (or Cyberlodge/IAMAW). I support all of these, I just think we need more organized programmers/admin to combat the evil Intel/IBM/Microsoft organizations like the ITAA

Things are so crappy I really don't fucking want to hear from assholes full of hubris with their heads up their bosses ass talking about "merit" and how they're the world's greatest programmer. Fuck them. I'm working right now, but I am unhappy with what I am making, in fact, wages in IT

In my view, any type of organization of IT workers to fight against this stuff is good. And the AFL-CIO technical unions have been fighting for it from the beginning, and have actually been doing the type of stuff that gets results, including lobbying in Washington DC and so forth. I know people who want IT workers to organize to work on issues like this or certification but are anti-union, and not much have come out of their efforts thus far. At least they're better than people who don't want to organize at all and be "independent". The employers are of course much smarter than those people, Microsoft, IBM, Intel etc. have been well-organized and well-financed for a long time, funding organizations like the ITAA to do away with overtime for IT workers (the FLSA revokation), bringing in tons of H1-B workers which even government reports admit depress wages - which is why IT wages fell for the first time in a decade recently, changing section 1706 tax laws so that IT workers have mroe difficulty contracting independently. The people running the show are more organized than anybody, funding the ITAA to the tune of millions a year, which then goes and lobbies in Washington, puts out bogus reports that even get reported on Slashdot as verity, and blitzing the rest of the press that there is a shortage of IT workers, and nowadays forever releasing papers saying there is going to be an upturn in IT right around the corner so no laws changing the H1-B visa need to be done. These socially retarded programming "geniuses" are seeing industry wages depressed in the midst of employer organization, but they are way too brilliant to become organized themselves, and thus industry wages have fallen as a result. Be smart - hook up with one of the technical unions. And if you don't want to organzie in a union, at least join a professional association funded by members (not by the employers like the IEEE is funded - which shows in how they do things).

So if you and your co-workers want to unionize, there is a resource for you. If you don't want to collectively bargain, feel free to ignore this. Of course, unionization empowers workers and is considered a threat to the employers and their sycophants. Union organizers used to be accused of being communistic atheists, and these sycophants for the bosses will probably crawl out from whatever rock they're under and start attacking your right to join a union, just like a fundamentalist wackadoo attacks atheists. Despite the fact that your ultimate bosses, the people collecting dividends and interest from corporate stocks and bonds, are mostly heirs who have never worked a day in their life and have no skills whatsoever, unions will be attacked as hurting the hard-working and the skilled (even though guilds were originally formed to protect skilled workers). They will also call unions corrupt although they will neglect to mention the Ken Lays and the Enrons you work for being corrupt

Frankly, I'm sick of the little Farscape-watching socially retarted reactionary dorks I am often forced to work side-by-side with, who have no need for free time since they spend their free time in front of the computer for the boss instead of socializing with other human beings. Well - let them loose with their sycophantic rantings, just remember there are a lot of us, like you and me, who are on our side, and can and will do something about what's going on.