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Well... Let's See about that... Oh wait, I'm having trouble finding support for him. Oh wait, I found this Wikipedia page So, the police and firefighters unions. That's it.

Checking the list of supporters vs. the legislative agenda of the organization shows some gaps.

• Congressional Fire Services Institute, the lobby for firefighters. SOPA isn't on their list of legislation they support. Their list, reasonably, has legislation about fire safety, pay, and spectrum for first responders.
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers They want unemployment insurance extensions, jobs, and fewer free trade agreements. No SOPA.
• The Fraternal Order of Police the cops' lobby, has an explicit "Legislation Supported by the National Fraternal Order of Police" list. SOPA isn't on it.

Somebody is making this stuff up.

Yup, and now that the $1B construction job is done, do we just ship the construction workers off to "somewhere else"?

You obviously have never worked in the construction trades. They don't just go down to Home Depot and pick up 200 guys from the parking lot to build a complex like this. Nor do they haul a trailer on site, put up a sign saying NOW HIRING, and wait for locals to show up with hammers and work boots. A job like this will be contracted out a large construction company, in this case Holder Construction. They then subcontract to large specialist companies for electrical, plumbing, concrete, ironwork, etc. Those specialist companies, at least the skilled trades ones, will pretty much invariably be union shops. They aren't going to be hiring Jethro the local electrician to wire up the place. Heck, Jethro probably couldn't even get hired by the electrical contractor, since it's highly unlikely that he's a member of the IBEW. Union construction jobs like that do draw from local union members first... but there frequently aren't very many members sitting around waiting for work. Do they put up a NOW HIRING sign then? No, unions are essentially a guild system, structured to keep labor scarce and expensive. They list the available jobs on their web site and bring union guys to them. Construction workers are highly itinerant, and will go to where the work is. Then, when the work is done, they move on to the next job, in the next town.

No, even the building process didn't directly employ a whole lot of locals, largely only the few that happened to be union guys waiting for work. There was undoubtedly a temporary uptick in the local fast food, liquor store, motel, and prostitution industries, but that's probably the extent of it.

Have you ever heard of a webmaster union, or for that matter any IT/programming union?

I am in IT, live in the US, and I am in a union. The International Brotherhood Of Electrical Workers, or IBEW. All IT workers at my organization fall under this union.

Construction electricians are also very mobile and in fact many travel the country from job to job doing what they call "tramping" without going through the whole interviewing process for every single job they do. Here is a link to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) website jobs listing: http://www.ibew.org/members/jobs/index.asp

IT professionals could do something similar - in fact some do something similar to this already but they have to find their own jobs and go through interviews instead of just going to the union board. On the other hand, a company can call the IBEW and order the workers they need and the union just sends them the workers.

The trouble with IT is that people like to keep secrets because that is how they gain the advantage in their job. In a union, this is discouraged because everyone is to receive the same training. I doubt that a company could never call an IT union to order IT personnel and be guaranteed a minimal skill level such as can be done with electricians.

Well, oil sands have been profitable for some time now. Alberta is doing very well for itself thanks to that. See here and here for the first links I ran into regarding it. At around $12.50CDN a barrel to produce it, with the cost per barrel on the market well above $40, they're doing very nicely and have plenty of reserves.

Don't get your hopes up.

Deregulation isn't all it's cracked up to be.

What union are they part of? At my school, the TA's and graders are part of the United Auto Worker's Union and were threatening to go on strike. Yup, United Auto Workers. So maybe the students are part of the Electrician's Union or something. =)

Maybe it's just me, but some things are worth paying for. I prefer juice in my stomach, not coursing through my entire body...

Unions are for jobs that require little skill.

Some Union labor:

Airline Pilots (ALPA)

Air Traffic Controllers (NATCA)

Electricians (IBEW)

Machinists (IAM)

Next time you watch Sixty Minutes and hear about overworked pilots falling asleep while landing aircraft, think about why pilots need to stand together. Next time you're within 100 miles of SFO, DEN, ORD, DFW or JFK think about the people who manage virtual beehives of aircraft. Next time you plunk down a couple slices of bread in your toaster, think about the people who enforce licensing and standards so your house doesn't catch fire, wired by some sleaze with spare telephone wires. Next time you think about the complexity and precision that makes up a space shuttle or ISS, think about the people who actually make the parts and put them together.

There are numerous other unions and "joe typical union guy" isn't some neanderthal, he's someone who wants fair compensation, decent hours and a safe work environment. Considering all the failed dotcoms put together by the sweat of geeks putting in 60+ hour weeks (some cases over 90) and getting squat when they're axed, it doesn't look like such a bad idea.

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As a job, being a sysadmin is a lot like being a plumber or electrician. Those guys have work rules and get overtime. This keeps them from being jerked around. Sysadmins need a union too. And there is one.

Click here to organize your workplace.