Indeed. In Canada, the telco had always been a government-regulated monopoly. And you heard all the complains I'm reading now.
Then they deregulated and slowly split up Bell until we arrived at a situation where we have a private, largely deregulated series of companies that exploit their control over the phone network to squish competition, especially in broadband.
They boost local phone rates (another monopoly area) to the point where poor people can't afford phones because they now have to compete with gazillions of long distance carriers and need to get money from somewhere.
Meanwhile, all this competition is slowly causing companies to leave the field or go out of business. Our two biggest cell phone companies have now merged, for example.
It's all leading back toward a monopoly again only this time it'll be totally deregulated and the company will control your landline, your cell, your internet and your TV.
Visit washtech.org if you want evidence, anecdotes, reasons why IT workers need and deserve unions. That said, there are probably some really crummy unions out there who merely vaccum dues and ensure that the workers don't get uppity. I recommend choosing one that isn't like that.
Painting all unions with the same brush is like saying all companies are like Microsoft. Unions are, after all, just a bunch of people in a workplace who have a common problem and decide to work together to solve it.
I'm actually surprised that the recent troubles in the e-dot-conomy haven't pushed more IT types to sign cards. When your skills are on the edge and times are good you figure you're pretty much invincible. What often happens is that people turn to unions when things are in the toilet and the water is swirling.
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Indeed. In Canada, the telco had always been a government-regulated monopoly. And you heard all the complains I'm reading now.
Then they deregulated and slowly split up Bell until we arrived at a situation where we have a private, largely deregulated series of companies that exploit their control over the phone network to squish competition, especially in broadband.
They boost local phone rates (another monopoly area) to the point where poor people can't afford phones because they now have to compete with gazillions of long distance carriers and need to get money from somewhere.
Meanwhile, all this competition is slowly causing companies to leave the field or go out of business. Our two biggest cell phone companies have now merged, for example.
It's all leading back toward a monopoly again only this time it'll be totally deregulated and the company will control your landline, your cell, your internet and your TV.
Doesn't that just sound great.
Painting all unions with the same brush is like saying all companies are like Microsoft. Unions are, after all, just a bunch of people in a workplace who have a common problem and decide to work together to solve it.
I'm actually surprised that the recent troubles in the e-dot-conomy haven't pushed more IT types to sign cards. When your skills are on the edge and times are good you figure you're pretty much invincible. What often happens is that people turn to unions when things are in the toilet and the water is swirling.