Ask Slashdot: What Would It Take For Developers To Start Their Own Union?

juicegg writes "TechCrunch contributor Klint Finley writes that developers have shunned unions because traditional workplace demands like higher pay are not important to us while traditional unions are incapable of advocating for what developers care about most while at work: autonomy and self-management. Is this how most developers feel? What about overtime, benefits, conditions for contractors and outsourcing concerns? Are there any issues big enough to get developers and techies to make collective demands or is it not worth the risk? Do existing unions offer advantages or is it better to start from scratch?"

Comments

Re:contradictio in terminis: Union for more autono

[Cid Highwind]

Disclaimer: I'm live and work in Europe

...where you already have 4+ weeks vacation, sane working hours, protection from dismissal without cause, guaranteed health care if you do lose your job, and so on and so forth. Understandable that you don't see the appeal of a better contract.

Re:Does *any* industry start a new union anymore?

[starworks5]

The company controls the collective capital and labor of the business, and a few companies can control the collective capital and labor of an entire market, how would you think that individuals will be able to bargain against such asymmetrical power structures?

Somehow, I think you misunderstood why collective bargaining began, and need to read up on the history late 19th century early 20th century.

Re:NEWS: Higher pay no longer important.

[jopsen]

Since when is higher pay simply "not important"?

Tech workers, engineers, etc. usually negotiate salary on a one-on-one basis. Based on skills, commitments, etc.
Traditional unions (the ones with red flags) would crack down hard on performance based bonus systems.

However, I'm a student member of a union in Denmark, for engineers, etc. They are not like traditional unions but are mostly here to help, if you need guidance, or want to sue your employer for wrongful conduct, discrimination or whatever...
Futhermore, they also offer a fairly good unemployment insurance :)

But mostly, it's benefits, job training, networking, etc. and not so much salary negotiations, although they can help with that.

Re:Does *any* industry start a new union anymore?

[mikael_j]

I keep hearing this "with unions everyone will get the same salary" thing from Americans and I've been getting the impression that there's a lot of irrational hatred of unions based on this misconception.

This is not some fundamental consequence of unions, it's simply a side-effect of some of the American unions. Here in Sweden, where we have a lot of strong unions in all sorts of industries, most just demand that there's a reasonable minimum salary, that you can't be forced to work as a "temporary" employee for years on end, that when layoffs happen they do so in a fair way, that local labor laws regarding overtime pay and things like that.