Training is one arena where a tech union might really make a diffence. Why?
1). For the most part, US employers no longer invest in training. They expect workers to be responsible for their own skills upgrades and maintenance.
2). 100% responsibility (freelance or FT employee) for your own training can be expensive, time-consuming, and (sometimes) almost obsolete before you finish it.
3). By banding together, workers can build their own training programs that are high-quality, evolve rapidly to meet industry demand, and are cheaper (for members) than similar offerings at a community college or university.
Case in point:
WashTech/CWA in Seattle WA has built its own IT union training program from scratch. It now offers ASP.NET, XML, Java, Flash, Perl and more. Members get significant course discounts. No other local union in the country is offering such training. Member dues help to subsidize discounted training for everyone. If you take one WashTech class in the course of a year, the savings compared to non-members course fees can equal or surpass one year's dues.
Unions are human instituations, made up of people. If they have a sucky, apathetic membership, and sucky, dumbass, corrupt or completely ego-driven leadership, they will suck. Same could be said for companies, governments, 501c3s, or your local PTA.
The best unions are democratic through and through, have an activist, engaged membership, and pro-active and accessible leadership. And, their members collectively provide each other with far more on the job clout and voice than they would ever have as lone individuals beating the heads against company brick walls.
If you are a tech worker that has started to wonder about the need for some sort of tech union, you might wanna throw out any knee-jerk "well the Teamsters did this" or "what about the teachers union keeping these old deadwood teachers from being fired" anti-union commentary you may find here or elsewhere. Why? Because any blanket statement about unions is bound to be inaccurate. Unions are not monolithic. Any union is simply the collective sum of what its members make it. They vary like night and day. If you join or help build one, it is colored by your issues and your input.
Some IT worker organizing sites:
http://www.techsunite.org
http://www.washtech.org
http://www.programmersguild.org
A number of postings here make reference to unions basing compensation solely on seniority, no reward for merit, etc. So why would any techie worth his or her salt want to get roped into that BS, and get paid the same as some lame non-performer with half the talent?
Good question. Answer: When you bargain collectively as part of a union, you negotiate over the issues that you care about. If you don't want seniority-based wage ladders, you don't propose them! Simple as that. Union contracts can, and often do, include provisions for merit pay. In those cases, they establish base minimums for various categories. In many white collar unions, such as the Newspaper Guild, many union members earn merit pay well above the negotiated base for their job title.
It's also not true that union contracts prevent non-performing employees from getting fired. If you are not, or cannot, do the job you were hired to do, you can get fired from a union job like any other. The difference is, the firing will not be random or capricious, or based on the fact that some manager does not like you. Your contract will, or should, outline a negotiated process for discpline or terminations. Any firing will therefore come as the result of a process that documents your non-peformance, and in which you can appeal or contest any unsubstantiated allegations about your performance -- not out of the blue.
Yes, it is past time to organize. It doesn't have to be a union. Collective activity can take many forms. It can be an association, an alliance, a listserv, a loosely-knit mutli-state coalition that mobilizes around specific legislative issues, etc.
But we DO need something. If you want to address workplace-specific issues as a group of workers, rather than as individuals beating heads against employer brick walls, a union has proven to be the most effective way of doing so.
However, you don't need to wait to organize in some form if you think a union is unlikely, unwanted, or unnecessary in your workplace. Just start plugging in or communicating with other tech workers who are organizing on some level and go from there. Some examples:
Exactly. Lame unions or lame union contracts are typically lame in direct proportion to how much their members allow them to be so. It's easy to prop up "unions suck" straw men with a few generic analogies and then whack them down.
Same as you could assert that all corporate execs are greedy bastards because those at Enron were (or are!). Painting with such a broad brushstrokes doesn't really shine any light on the issues at hand.
Here's a simple reality about union contracts: They cover the issues that workers in a particular workplace/company/unit etc want them to cover.
Don't want compensation in any way based on seniority? Fine, don't put that on the table as an issue when you bargain a union contract! There is nothing that mandates that a union contract has to include any sort of pay scale, nor even address pay at all.
You want all compensation left up to individual negotiations between you and your employer? More power to you -- a union can stipulate that in a contract proposal, and just collectively bargain issues such as layoff notice, medical benefits, etc.
There are many unions out there -- including the Newspaper Guild and the Screen Actors Guild -- that simply negotiate mandatory minimums for various job categories. Individual workers are free to -- and generally do -- negotiate individual compensation packages that are well above the minimums. In these instances, the contracts simply establish a floor, not a ceiling.
It is also not true that unions prevent employers from firing deadwood or non-performing employees. If someone ain't doing their job, they can be fired, union contract or not. A union contract ensures, however, that if someone is going to be fired, there is a standard procedure for doing so, and that the process is documented and backed up by evidence of non-performance. Not simply because some manager decides they don't like you or that you haven't licked their boots often enough this month.
Slashdot Mirror
Training is one arena where a tech union might really make a diffence. Why?
1). For the most part, US employers no longer invest in training. They expect workers to be responsible for their own skills upgrades and maintenance.
2). 100% responsibility (freelance or FT employee) for your own training can be expensive, time-consuming, and (sometimes) almost obsolete before you finish it.
3). By banding together, workers can build their own training programs that are high-quality, evolve rapidly to meet industry demand, and are cheaper (for members) than similar offerings at a community college or university.
Case in point: WashTech/CWA in Seattle WA has built its own IT union training program from scratch. It now offers ASP.NET, XML, Java, Flash, Perl and more. Members get significant course discounts. No other local union in the country is offering such training. Member dues help to subsidize discounted training for everyone. If you take one WashTech class in the course of a year, the savings compared to non-members course fees can equal or surpass one year's dues.
Details:
http://www.washtech.org/wt/training/
Unions are human instituations, made up of people. If they have a sucky, apathetic membership, and sucky, dumbass, corrupt or completely ego-driven leadership, they will suck. Same could be said for companies, governments, 501c3s, or your local PTA.
The best unions are democratic through and through, have an activist, engaged membership, and pro-active and accessible leadership. And, their members collectively provide each other with far more on the job clout and voice than they would ever have as lone individuals beating the heads against company brick walls.
If you are a tech worker that has started to wonder about the need for some sort of tech union, you might wanna throw out any knee-jerk "well the Teamsters did this" or "what about the teachers union keeping these old deadwood teachers from being fired" anti-union commentary you may find here or elsewhere. Why? Because any blanket statement about unions is bound to be inaccurate. Unions are not monolithic. Any union is simply the collective sum of what its members make it. They vary like night and day. If you join or help build one, it is colored by your issues and your input.
Some IT worker organizing sites:
http://www.techsunite.org
http://www.washtech.org
http://www.programmersguild.org
A number of postings here make reference to unions basing compensation solely on seniority, no reward for merit, etc. So why would any techie worth his or her salt want to get roped into that BS, and get paid the same as some lame non-performer with half the talent?
Good question. Answer: When you bargain collectively as part of a union, you negotiate over the issues that you care about. If you don't want seniority-based wage ladders, you don't propose them! Simple as that. Union contracts can, and often do, include provisions for merit pay. In those cases, they establish base minimums for various categories. In many white collar unions, such as the Newspaper Guild, many union members earn merit pay well above the negotiated base for their job title.
It's also not true that union contracts prevent non-performing employees from getting fired. If you are not, or cannot, do the job you were hired to do, you can get fired from a union job like any other. The difference is, the firing will not be random or capricious, or based on the fact that some manager does not like you. Your contract will, or should, outline a negotiated process for discpline or terminations. Any firing will therefore come as the result of a process that documents your non-peformance, and in which you can appeal or contest any unsubstantiated allegations about your performance -- not out of the blue.
Same with layoffs -- and layoff notice.
Yes, it is past time to organize. It doesn't have to be a union. Collective activity can take many forms. It can be an association, an alliance, a listserv, a loosely-knit mutli-state coalition that mobilizes around specific legislative issues, etc.
But we DO need something. If you want to address workplace-specific issues as a group of workers, rather than as individuals beating heads against employer brick walls, a union has proven to be the most effective way of doing so.
However, you don't need to wait to organize in some form if you think a union is unlikely, unwanted, or unnecessary in your workplace. Just start plugging in or communicating with other tech workers who are organizing on some level and go from there. Some examples:
Alliance@IBM
http://www.allianceibm.org
Programmer's Guild
http://www.programmersguild.org
TechsUnite
http://www.techsunite.org
Washington Alliance of Technology Workers
http://www.washtech.org
Exactly. Lame unions or lame union contracts are typically lame in direct proportion to how much their members allow them to be so. It's easy to prop up "unions suck" straw men with a few generic analogies and then whack them down.
Same as you could assert that all corporate execs are greedy bastards because those at Enron were (or are!). Painting with such a broad brushstrokes doesn't really shine any light on the issues at hand.
Here's a simple reality about union contracts: They cover the issues that workers in a particular workplace/company/unit etc want them to cover.
Don't want compensation in any way based on seniority? Fine, don't put that on the table as an issue when you bargain a union contract! There is nothing that mandates that a union contract has to include any sort of pay scale, nor even address pay at all.
You want all compensation left up to individual negotiations between you and your employer? More power to you -- a union can stipulate that in a contract proposal, and just collectively bargain issues such as layoff notice, medical benefits, etc.
There are many unions out there -- including the Newspaper Guild and the Screen Actors Guild -- that simply negotiate mandatory minimums for various job categories. Individual workers are free to -- and generally do -- negotiate individual compensation packages that are well above the minimums. In these instances, the contracts simply establish a floor, not a ceiling.
It is also not true that unions prevent employers from firing deadwood or non-performing employees. If someone ain't doing their job, they can be fired, union contract or not. A union contract ensures, however, that if someone is going to be fired, there is a standard procedure for doing so, and that the process is documented and backed up by evidence of non-performance. Not simply because some manager decides they don't like you or that you haven't licked their boots often enough this month.