51–60 of 153 posts
If it wasn't for Steve Jobs we might have agents like Hollywood actors. To me the real question is why don't we have agents like actors and basketball players? We could be like actors and have both a union and our own agents. But thanks to Jobs conspiring to hold back engineer income we have a situation where we are often leveraged into poverty.
I think the actual answer to your question is "for many of us, things are pretty good". Unionization happens with wide-spread abuses; when things generally suck. I don't know what wide-spread abuses there are in software, particularly salaried positions.
I don't necessarily need a union, but I do need the information necessary to negotiate better - that sounds like a professional association.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow you and I live in alternate universes. In my experience, and having been without work at various times, and freelancing... I believe developers are scarce. You need an aptitude and some (self?) training to take part and a lot of people can't be bothered. That being said, I see you describe yourself as a "pinko commie" and as a business owner who was at one time a union administrator in a past life I would never h…
Good developers are scarce, bad ones aren't.
Unions may have helped once upon a time, but now they just take money from your compensation to pay union managers who work against a company being efficient (which makes pay even less over time).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So not teaching more people engineering is a good thing? Are you really advocating ignorance to artificially constrain the supply in the market of competent engineers? Non-competes, no-poaching, etc and illegal acts to constrain salaries are deplorable, yes, but are you going to be able to change the profit motive of business? Nope. What you can change is how you market yourself and seeking other opportunities for in…
There is a quota on doctors why not on engineers? We're already OK with the former.
Maybe I'm mistaken, but I feel like people unionize when they're being taken advantage of and need to fight for better employment conditions....but developers have it pretty nice, all in all, most of us. I don't feel much incentive to unionize when I'm making $50/hr+ and have unlimited vacation.
You realize that's a ploy to get you to take less vacation/not pay out accrued hours on leaving the company right?
Generally unionization is fought fairly hard by companies for the simple reason that it restricts what they can do and takes some control out of the hands of management. In the Bay area in the late 80's there was mumbling about unions after the great semiconductor flame out. A lot of people were laid off without warning and since it was widespread the ability to walk across the street and get rehired was limited. Sin…
Fully agree.. but I wonder what would happen if unions started to take a leaf out of the 'no poaching' corporate playbook and simply unionised secretly. Collective bargaining via synchronised individual bargaining, where everyone demands the same conditions on their employment. (Surely this could be appified ;) Perhaps if there were no official union, the vicious knock down would be much more difficult to focus. And…
A secret voluntary union would lack that unifying force and would collapse as workers pursue their personal self-interest.
3.)Sure, a twelve year old can code. But, is it quality and sustainable. There are child soldier armies in Africa. Do you get the point?
4.)the real job is called Unix System Administrator or applications engineer or electrical engineer or business analyst. The names of job titles change in order to give you a LOWER SALARY and keep you a 'college student debt slave.' Your real skillset is contributing to the codebase aka knowledge base aka collaboration mesh aka Internet aka e-commerce protocol. Do you get it now about the scam racket?
5.)Even OpenBSD and various New York City Linux Clubs are close to bankrupt. It is difficult to find volunteers. With no volunteers, I doubt there will be any 'organization even considering' the formation of a union.
6.)Look to history! One class of 'skilled worker' aka software developer aka COAL MINER worked harder than slaves. Coal Miners got 'black lung' and lived their life like sucking for air through a straw. Developers got 'eye disease' and lived their life like half-blind cripples. The Coal Miner "Molly McGuires' were a 'secret organization', broken as a criminal conspiracy. Some were 'Irish'; some were not ON BOTH SIDES, the monopoly 'Robber Baron' Franklin Benjamin Gowen versus criminal leader "Hugh McGehan" and Pinkerton Detective Covert Agent and infiltrator "James McParlan."
7.)No, IMHO, I don't think "Occupy WallStreet" stands a chance of starting a union.
8.)I like to rewrite basic Perl and shell scripts into Python calling into C++ code. Withe the new evolving standards of C++, I know CHAOS, CONFUSION, even failure and desperation will occur.
9.)This is NOT about EFF or 'do-gooder organizations.' IT IS ABOUT YOU, the CODER. When the new AI robot and flexible hardware architecture based on FPGA, etc. happens and sixty percent of the workers are out of work,
THEN IT IS TIMES OF DESPERATION.
10.)only then, will the 'scam racket' aka 'conspiracy theory' aka predatory capitalism aka the alt-right wing of the internet movement will be revealed.
Does that answer the question "Why don't developers unionize?"
No, zero! It's not about the money or even insurance benefits. The CEO 'leads and manages' to get paid 500 times multiple of lowly coder. THE CEO has trouble fixing the Excel Spreadsheet macro on his laptop.
Something is wrong; badly wrong. There is a 'scam racket.'
What could I expect to change in my daily working life by joining your "new model union"? Unions got buy-in from workers because they offered tangible benefits to workers. Shorter days, medical care, better pay, and so on. The items you list are public policy concerns that align well with a variety of advocacy groups. In virtually all cases, a specialist advocacy group seems better-suited to addressing the problem th…
3.)Sure, a twelve year old can code. But, is it quality and sustainable. There are child soldier armies in Africa. Do you get the point?
4.)the real job is called Unix System Administrator or applications engineer or electrical engineer or business analyst. The names of job titles change in order to give you a LOWER SALARY and keep you a 'college student debt slave.' Your real skillset is contributing to the codebase aka knowledge base aka collaboration mesh aka Internet aka e-commerce protocol. Do you get it now about the scam racket?
5.)Even OpenBSD and various New York City Linux Clubs are close to bankrupt. It is difficult to find volunteers. With no volunteers, I doubt there will be any 'organization even considering' the formation of a union.
6.)Look to history! One class of 'skilled worker' aka software developer aka COAL MINER worked harder than slaves. Coal Miners got 'black lung' and lived their life like sucking for air through a straw. Developers got 'eye disease' and lived their life like half-blind cripples. The Coal Miner "Molly McGuires' were a 'secret organization', broken as a criminal conspiracy. Some were 'Irish'; some were not ON BOTH SIDES, the monopoly 'Robber Baron' Franklin Benjamin Gowen versus criminal leader "Hugh McGehan" and Pinkerton Detective Covert Agent and infiltrator "James McParlan."
7.)No, IMHO, I don't think "Occupy WallStreet" stands a chance of starting a union.
8.)I like to rewrite basic Perl and shell scripts into Python calling into C++ code. Withe the new evolving standards of C++, I know CHAOS, CONFUSION, even failure and desperation will occur.
9.)This is NOT about EFF or 'do-gooder organizations.' IT IS ABOUT YOU, the CODER. When the new AI robot and flexible hardware architecture based on FPGA, etc. happens and sixty percent of the workers are out of work,
THEN IT IS TIMES OF DESPERATION.
10.)only then, will the 'scam racket' aka 'conspiracy theory' aka predatory capitalism aka the alt-right wing of the internet movement will be revealed.
Does that answer the question "Why don't developers unionize?"
No, zero! It's not about the money or even insurance benefits. The CEO 'leads and manages' to get paid 500 times multiple of lowly coder. THE CEO has trouble fixing the Excel Spreadsheet macro on his laptop.
Something is wrong; badly wrong. There is a 'scam racket.'