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The problem with union is that it also centralizes the power to the top which also then attracts sociopaths and/or psychopaths who are better are playing the political game.
How do unions work? Can a place just not hire union workers and it takes a whole profession to unionize to make them effective?
To me, it is simply an organization by workers to collectively bargain with capital (who have their own equivalent to unions). The unions also typically offer unemployment insurance as well as income replacement in case of strikes, which are a possible measure that can be organized by the unions to force capital to come to the negotiation table. An employer has no right to know if you're in a union or not, so it would be quite impractical to try to hire only non-union members, and most companies don't mind either way, because the collective bargain agreements go both ways and can make it simpler than negotiating individual agreements with each employee.
In the US, it seems like unions are what I would call a guild - very highly coupled to a particular profession. Where I'm from they typically accept anyone who works in a general sector (say medical, government, transportation, etc.), as typically most workers in the same sector would have similar challenges and goals.
Happy to answer questions about how it all works - there are only about ~6000 dev/product/design/qa employees in the U.S., so there is very little first hand experience to go around.
Among other things that my coworkers and I secured by bargaining collectively are:
- Guaranteed remote work.
- Guaranteed forty hour work week, with compensatory time within two weeks if management asks us to work overtime.
- Not on call 24/7/365. Everyone is in a defined rotation, and you are guaranteed three hours off just for being on call for a week, and a whole day if you receive a call. I believe that partly because of this policy, after hours incidents are extremely infrequent now.
- Guaranteed floor on wage increases every year.
- Just cause for discipline. People still get terminated if they don't do the work, but if you want it (and almost everyone does) there is an elected coworker in your corner to guide you through a PIP and make sure standards are enforced evenly. You can't suddenly be terminated for no reason. - Extra time off each year through self-directed times between sprints and quarterly increments.
- Right to review all code done by outside contractors if you're going to have to maintain it in the future.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> actual understanding of the pros and cons of union membership Many of us have worked in $MEGACORPS with substantial union representation among the employees, have seen what it does and how it works in practice, and as a result want nothing to do with it. I wasn't represented due to my job classification, but now due to my firsthand exposure to unions I absolutely never will be by choice. No way, no how, not ever.
Translated: Management ("wasn't represented due to job classification") doesn't like unions. Shocker.
How do unions work? Can a place just not hire union workers and it takes a whole profession to unionize to make them effective?
> How do unions work? About as unevenly as every other human social tribe. Was part of SEIU at one point. At least where I worked SEIU reps were fucking useless. My team was stuck in a basement with mold growing in the corners. There are so many other layers of by-laws, local, state, federal laws the union was essentially useless. But people in SEIU elsewhere said they were great. So as always YMMV Grocers union memb…
This reflects poorly on the neighbors more than the union members, IMO.
How do unions work? Can a place just not hire union workers and it takes a whole profession to unionize to make them effective?
In the US, most unions are majority unions, i.e., they unionize an entire workplace by majority vote, and then demand that the company allows them to require all hired employees to belong to the union. Hiring scabs is a breach of contract, with the added weight that unions have extra protections ( for example, you can't just fire anyone who talks about unionizing. That's big illegal). Besides the legal protections, t…
68% of Americans supposedly support unions: https://news.gallup.com/poll/694472/labor-union-approval-rel... Yet, ~50% of Americans voted for the party that is diametrically opposed to them; a paradox. That said, with only about ~10% of Americans being employed in a union role, it's more like the grass is greener on the other side than an actual understanding of the pros and cons of union membership.
This is why one issue wedge voting works. You may vote against something you want to vote for something you want more.
The reason I consider it a threat is that it allows either party to meta-game the fact that many voters can be persuaded to vote against their own interests.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is why one issue wedge voting works. You may vote against something you want to vote for something you want more.
Single-issue voting is something I consider a very large threat to the democratic process in the US, and is also something that both parties have become exceedingly good at creating in the elctorate. The reason I consider it a threat is that it allows either party to meta-game the fact that many voters can be persuaded to vote against their own interests.
I'm a unionized software developer, and have been part of two separate organizing campaigns at two different employers. Happy to answer questions about how it all works - there are only about ~6000 dev/product/design/qa employees in the U.S., so there is very little first hand experience to go around. Among other things that my coworkers and I secured by bargaining collectively are: - Guaranteed remote work. - Guaran…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the US, most unions are majority unions, i.e., they unionize an entire workplace by majority vote, and then demand that the company allows them to require all hired employees to belong to the union. Hiring scabs is a breach of contract, with the added weight that unions have extra protections ( for example, you can't just fire anyone who talks about unionizing. That's big illegal). Besides the legal protections, t…
So if the company doesn't sign a contract that they will hire union labor they are free to hire whoever they want? I wonder how this will work with IT since there seems to be an abundance of labor and still decent salaries being offered.