Tech Workers of the World Unite?

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."

Comments

Unions had their place years ago, now they don't

[teshuvah]

They were a necessary evil when the Industrial Revolution came about, but now they're just an unnecessary evil. The unions are nothign more than legal mafias. Just look at GM. I have 2 family members who work there. My brother-in-law is a toolmaker, and his job consists of playing cards, working out, watching TV, and taking naps. Oh, and for about an hour out of the day he actually has to do some actual work like reset a machine or something. Poor guy only makes $35/hour after being there for a year. He started at $28 an hour. He has no college degree either, so GM is paying for him to get his journeyman's card, and pays for him to attend school (pays for the school plus his hourly wage why he is there). Up until recently, he could take as much overtime as he wanted, including double and sometimes triple time on Sunday. Guess what he pays for family health insurance? $0.00 a month. I guess this is why GM is so financially sound, oh wait.......

Re:Heck no.

[geekoid]

that statment is laughable at best.

Coporations don't cull 'slackers' they cull people who have unfavorable opinions, were on 'the wrong project', friend of the 'wrong person', or was forced to play a political game.

As someone in a union, I can assure you people who don't do their jobs are removed.

http://www.washtech.org/ is a union.

[ClioCJS]

http://www.washtech.org/!

Please join. At least get their newsletter. It's VERY informative. You don't have to give them money.

Re:Because that'll work *so* well.

[Jason Earl]

And when you lose that war, do we get to kill you, or will we have to settle for enslaving you?

Here's the beauty of economics. If the Chinese and the Indians truly do have a comparative advantage at creating software then that means that everyone that uses software will benefit as more software production is moved overseas. Sure, you'll have to find something else to do, but everyone that buys software will benefit. No one is going to go to war to preserve your job because chances are good that they will actually benefit from the shift.

Hooray for economics!

You can try and fight economics if you want, but its not likely to help. Free markets are as old as mankind, and even in places like the former Soviet Union, where the government tried to limit the power of the market, markets still had a very powerful influence on the economy. So declare war on India and China if you wish, just don't be surprised when your army turns out to be pathetically small, and full of deranged lunatics.

Re:Fight your own battles.

[drinkypoo]

I'll try and find some citations for this so I can share them. It's really quite deliberate. The basic form of current American public education (I can only REALLY speak for this place, of course) was laid down when we needed factory workers. Also I think it's clear that the no child left behind shit is designed to cater to the lowest common denominator. Hell, I was in a GATE program in elementary school, and they told me I couldn't participate in their astronomy fiddling because I wasn't old enough. If programs explicitly for gifted students aren't encouraging our children to learn, where ARE we? Answer: In the higher-class private schools that kids from families with money get to attend. They're taught to be shepherds, and everyone else is taught to be sheep.