Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Tech Workers of the World Unite?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the come-together-right-now dept.

okidokedork writes "Wired News reports on the lack of unions in the IT workplace. If you could join a union in your workplace, would you?" From the article: "The rich get richer, the shareholder is valued more than the employee, jobs are eliminated in the name of bottom-line efficiency (remember when they called firing people 'right-sizing'?) and the gulf between the rich and the working class grows wider every year. You see this libertarian ethos everywhere, but nowhere more clearly than in the technology sector, where the number of union jobs can be counted on one hand. Tech is the Wild West as far as the job market goes and the robber barons on top of the pile aim to keep it that way. They'll offshore your job to save a few bucks or lay you off at the first sign of a slump, but they're the first to scream, 'You're stifling innovation!' at any attempt to control the industry or provide job security for the people who do the actual work."

8 of 1,254 comments (clear)

  1. Counting by tktk · · Score: 4, Funny
    You see this libertarian ethos everywhere, but nowhere more clearly than in the technology sector, where the number of union jobs can be counted on one hand.

    Count in binary and you'll get a larger number.

    1. Re:Counting by Minwee · · Score: 3, Funny
      Because your fingers don't have five states.

      That was the polite response. The impolite one would have been to count to four.

  2. Wisdom (from Bash.org, of all places) by Bugs42 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I once saw a quote on Bash.org along these lines - Get all the tech-support people in the world to join together and form a kind of union. The union would have one purpose, and one purpose only: Every month, the members all pay a due. The dues go into one large pot. Now, anytime one of the members has to deal with a REALLY obnoxious/annoying (l)user who just doesn't get it, the money in the pot can be used to hire a hitman. Sounds good, no?

    --
    Programmer: an ingenious device that converts caffeine into code.
  3. Re:Simple Solution! by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hey, it worked for Enron!

    --
    The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
  4. With a name like 'Marxist Hacker'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ...why does it not surprise me that you're bitter, jobless, and will probably die alone?

  5. No shortage of arrogance here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I am better at my job than most people.

    Yeah, we all like to think that, dude. Hell, I should be President, while we're at it.

  6. I started a Union once for IT Geeks by centron-sg1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I started a Union once for IT Geeks. The Consolidated Union of Network Technologists, Didn't get to far as the acronym was found to be offensive....

  7. Re:Counting (explaining) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    Then you set finger down as a 0 in that power of 2, and up as a 1 in that position

    I MOD YOU +4 (with just my middle finger extended)