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Unions in the Tech Sector?
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?"
You'll work for scale, and give a (large) percent of your income to the union
I know dozens of people in unions. Union dues are typically 0.5% of your base pay. That's hardly a 'large percent'.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Since he brought it up, I will air my grievences.
,000 members. And most people think, well it must be a lot of jobs at stake. They would be wrong. The estimates, by the union itself, is 200-250 jobs. 200 people cost the economy of the US something approaching US$1,000,000,000 per day! For over 10 days!
I work for a company that imports all manner of goods from overseas. The majority of the goods (~95%) come from China and Taiwan. Anything from that area of the world is shipped by boat directly across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of the US, Canada, and South America. Most container ships are too big (wide) to go through a canal, be it Suez, or Panama. Unfortunately, most companies are stuck shipping the goods to the W.C. and then using ground (rail, sometimes truck) transport to a major distribution center, such as Charlotte, NY, Kansas City, Chicago etc etc. From there, containers are seperated, ie your 4 pallets are taken out of container, put onto a truck, and shipped to the city (usually) of final destination. Before the container is stripped, it is time for the goods to clear customs. This is when all duties are paid. Some things are duty free (lawn mower parts), and others have insanely high duties (int/ext tooth lockwashers are ~40%). Oh, I hope those wooden pallets (metric pallets are now being made of steel) have papers certifying that they were treated for pests (beetles, termites etc). Then the items go to the end user (retailer, factory or whatever)!
Obviously, none of this can happen if the goods can not enter the country because they are still on a container ship in some harbor somewhere. And the time the goods spend on that ship are not free, and I am not referring to lost time to sell the item. The shipping companies have instituted extra charges, starting sometime in November, per container. Depending on the shipping line, it can be US$500 for a 20 foot container, and US$1000 for a 40 foot container! This is to make up for "lost revenue due to the longshoremen strike." The thing is, Taiwan and China never actually stopped shipping goods; it was rumored for a few days, but did not actually happen. And those empty containers that go back overseas (sometimes filled, but not usually)? The major center in the US stopped sending empties back to the W.C.
Small truckers had nothing to haul from the ports. Consumable goods (food etc) started to spoil. Factories that rely on JIT (Just In Time) delivery of supplies (screws, nuts, bolts etc) were forced to temporarily shut down, or worse yet, lay-off workers. Importers couldn't get stuff delivered, which means no money; which makes it hard to order stuff for next March.
Alaska imports nearly 65% of all things. They had to get an injuction stating that the ports in Alaska could not be closed, for fear of running out of supplies. After all, toilet paper isn't made up there. Hawaii, which imports over 90% (I think) did not get any such injuction, and people started hoarding things (toilet paper was ALWAYS mentioned).
All of this, because the ILWU is protecting the rights of the their workforce, of 10,500 people. The companies that run the ports want to modernize again. Every time they try, it is resisted in some major way by the unions. The port companies want to use scanners to do the inventory, similar to any grocery store when you 'check-out.' As of today, ALL tracking is done by hand. We are talking quantities, locations, destinations, everything! Each of these operations require a specialized worker. Electronic scanning would simplify, and streamline this entire process.
Problem? Well, it takes fewer workers to do it by electronic means, obviously. The union says, no can do. They have contracts guaranteeing jobs for all of their personnel.
So, all of the aforementioned infrastructure, that we so proudly hold up as a benefit of modern society to be awed and copied by all others, is brought to a stop by a union with less than 11
People now think, "the strike is over," but it is not over. There is a cooling off period of 80 days, after which the union can strike again. As of the end of last week, negotiations had not started again. The workers are not working at full capacity. They are not working with the normal preicision that they are known for. They are purposefuly recording a container being placed in Lot A, when in fact it's in Lot C, for example. Workers are calling in "sick" more, taking long lunches, more breaks etc.
Most of the longshoremen want to work. Some do not. Some think it is outrageous that this was allowed to happen, while others are glad that it did.
In the end, the union can do whatever they want. The government is powerless to stop it, within the current legal environment. The workers make to much money (US$80,000-100,00) to go elsewhere. The management is not willing to break to the pressure of the unions this time, for fear of "next time." And we all get screwed.
(As a side note, this is why most computers are shipped via air)
For the IT and related industries, I think unions are a bad idea. You HAVE to go by there rules, otherwise, "see ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!" Not to mention that unions are run by normally by grumpy old men who would not understand the geek culture, and be all to willing to 'black list' any and all members who were not following the ideals of the union. Which might come into play seeming as how most geeks are seen as "anti-social", or "smelly", or "weird"...