Before I get started let me tell you a few things up front; I am a student of history so I have seen the good things that unions have done for the workers of America as well as the bad. My grandfather was a union steward and my father drove a truck and therefore had to join the union to keep his job. I live in the Midwest where all of the car manufacturers and most of the companies that support them are all unionized.
What started this was an article entitled, Should IT form a Union, which began by describing life in IT as “Sixty hour work weeks with no overtime or comp time…” and ended the opening line with “all for a job that could be outsourced tomorrow”. The author of the article proposes that to improve our collective conditions and to keep IT jobs in the states that we all should form a union; my response to this is…yeah right.
First off, how would IT jobs be classified to set the pay range? Most IT people I know are generally the jacks of all trades; they do and learn what is required to get the job done. Maybe we could set the IT pay scale on the number of certifications that you have. That would thrill the purveyors of braindumps to no end. That brings up another point, how would those of you that have worked so hard in the IT industry feel about getting paid the same as the newbie that just got hired because they purchased their certificate from TestKing (or whatever their name is now) or simply because they have seniority. I am sure the answer is, “not so much”.
Would creating an IT union help keep the jobs here in the states? Let’s look at the auto industry and check on how well that has helped them. When you combine union negotiated salaries and benefits with lower quality work that the union mentality sometimes creates, you have a great reason for those companies that haven’t shipped their jobs overseas to rethink their position.
So even though there are some interesting challenges to working in the IT field (wasn’t that a nice way to say that), unionizing would do more harm than good. I just think that it would accelerate the job migration out of the country and reduce the level of competency for any of the jobs that did remain.
So what do you think? Add a comment to argue your case for a unionized or non-unionized IT environment.
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If you're really a student of unions
If you really do know much about labor history, you'll know the gains unions have made. Yet you didn't choose to enumerate them. So let's do that:
* health care for life, which American business interests continue to deny almost every other class of worker
* retirement benefits, including pensions for life
* child labor laws
* weekends
* 8 hour days, and time and a half if you go over
* minimum wage laws, probably no coincidence that right now minimum wage is low and unions are also weak
For reasons that you don't describe, you claim that "lower quality work" could result. Why is that a union's fault? If you're specifically talking about the American automotive industry, you'll know that United Auto Workers didn't design the cars. They built the cars that the salaried designers and management designed to fall apart in convenient 3-5 year cycles. Unionized auto workers can and do build reliable cars, for instance, the Ford Fusion gets reliability numbers consistent with Toyota and Honda, but the Ford Fusions are made by unionized labor.
But something you completely missed the boat on, is worker training and apprenticeship. If you know anything about unions, which you claimed, you know that a new worker doesn't make the same wages as an experienced worker. You also know that skilled trades, for example union electrical workers have extensive apprenticeship and training programs before a new craftsman is allowed to work on their own.
IT has seen great results and high quality from practices like "pair programming", and I see no reason why unionized apprenticeship programs couldn't produce high quality unionized IT labor.
The United States had a long and glorious union labor history, which was run into the ground by a series of political acts. A few examples include Ronald Reagan union busting more than 10,000 air traffic controllers, and longer ago a series of laws that explicitly barred union leadership in the name of 'anti-communism'. You failed to mention any of those. You also failed to mention that before Chrysler became Daimler-Chrysler, there was more than $6 billion set aside in cash. When Daimler took over, they raided those funds, and left Chrysler wrecked. Isn't it strange that when a CEO wrecks a company, he gets a "retention bonus", and when he cuts jobs, he gets a "performance bonus"? Isn't it strange that badly managed airlines get to slash union benefits, then get a government bailout to give bonuses to the top management?
Flexibility is the key
I agree that unions have helped the American worker at one time, but I really don’t think that they would be as successful in the technology field as they were in other areas.
If you have a technology worker who has seniority because they have been doing the same job for a number of years, even though it may be a very specific task, they would be paid more than a new hire that may have more experience, training and certifications on a newer version of the product. The ‘senior’ employee would also have more say in what gets implemented than the new guy so the company’s IT position stagnates and they would lose their competitive edge.
This was the point I was making, not that unions are evil, but in the IT field, all employees need to have the ability to continue learning all of the new products that are constantly coming out, not remaining in their nice safe little world because there is a union backing them up.
By the way, talk to some of the retirees from Delco to see how they like their 'benefits for life'.
US Labor history is not so pure...
In Europe, labor unions pushed for benefits and protections for all workers on the political side. When was the last time the US had a "general strike"?
In the US, the labor unions were nothing but a protection racket against monopolistic and capital intensive businesses like mines, railroads and big factories. Its funny how union boosters always point to the failed Air Traffic Controllers strike in the 80s as a watershed - like it was some sort of triumph of big business and the pinkertons over poor working people. It was of a bunch of government employees finding out they were not above the law. Today in most states, the majority of union members are government employees.
IT unions could never work because the IT labor is too fungible. Unlike a coal miner or factory worker, in a strike, the job could be easily moved to another city, state or country.
"IT" should NOT be involved
"IT" should NOT be involved with Unions. In my former job I was a member of the UAW. All it got me was a closed factory. I would not only refuse to pay Union dues if IT went union, but I would fight them in court to keep from paying.
You'll get more for your
You'll get more for your union dues than you will for your headhunter fees.
I would look at a union, but given the nature of the biz it would have to be structured more like a sports players union - uaw is the wrong union model yet it keeps getting dredged up as if it were the only union model.
Union Yes!
Did you not get among the best wages paid in the United States? I am sure the non-union automotive employees were not getting a check as large as yours.
Would the union not file a grievance for you if you had a problem with management?
It easy to suck at the union tit and then bitch about the price of the milk. You complain about the union dues but have no problem cashing the paycheck the union negotitated for you.
I am a union programmer and I am constantly writing work arounds for commercial applications written by non-union programmers so I don't think that non-union code is any better.
You would lose in court. Many others have before you.
Union Yes!
Union or Non
Unions generall have a bad reputation - concerning who you talk to. If you ask management the union is the worst idea in the world. If you ask the worker the union is usually good and I get what I pay for. In the industry that has the retention rate of your local McDonalds IT may need something to help the workers that like their jobs and want to stay. They are the ones that have to learn and adapt to new technology every couple of years - usually with minor or no compensation. I have worked for 6 years at the same job, studied for and received certs, and have had no perks except the usuall pay raise at the end of the year. To me something could be done for the entrenched IT that keeps company's heads above water as far as technology is concerned. I have moved around as fast as the new job offered more - money - benefits - excitement - new technology. That was fine but gave me no feeling of security much less the employers that knew I was probably a temporary employee. Union, Networking, something needs to be done to not only help the entrenched IT but the new IT that would like to enter the field - that only wants to keep them at bay. Newby's need some help entering the field like the apprentice programs offered by unions. Giving them on the job training and more valuable the hands on experience you do not recieve being a paper tech. Come on be flexible. Where did you get your break - someone had to give you a chance. What would a better solution to the union? We are smart, we should be able to think of something outside of the box, eh?
Unionizing IT
In my opinion, the unions of this country ruin the workers. Unions protect the lazy and incompetent. Case-in-point, I worked for a prefabricated concrete company and the welder took three and a half months to build a cart for a pressure washer - we referred to it as the $3500 cart. When I asked why the welder was not questioned as to why it took so long, the response was "He is in the union and there isn't anything we could do about it". If you are not familiar with welding, this cart ahould have taken about 6 hours to build, not three months. The welder should have been fired. An IT union would be the end of IT except for the VERY NECESSARY. Say NO to an IT Union!!!!!!!!!!!!
I vote no for unions
The comments other have made about about rewarding the incompetent is a very real problem. In IT I have seen this when dealing with unions on data center build outs. And my father tells horror stories about the laziness on the construction side (he's even been a union member in the past).
The other side of the coin is that unions don't reward the exceptional. There are plenty of people in IT doing fantastic in the free market.
I'd wager a bet that unionization would result in a pay cut for me...
Wish I could drop the Union
Unfortunately, I am part of a union (you either pay dues or non-member dues of the same amount). The unions of the past protected workers and provided real value. Yes, unions used to have real purpose, but no longer do they benefit their members. Very few of today's unions offer anything other than protection for the unmotivated and money out of our pockets, giving it to politicians who are out of touch with the reality of today's workforce.