Unions do have a place and need in certain industries... it's just that tech isn't one of them. Anyone sufficiently competent in the tech industry can improve him/herself and get a better income over time - far faster than the typical Union could ever get you. There is a sufficient amount of work to be had out there for those who know what they're doing and can prove it... I think that only a brief 2-3 year period during the dot-bust was the main exception, in a field that has technica
Unions do have a place and need in certain industries... it's just that tech isn't one of them.
Tech is special, because we're tech workers and we're special.
Tech jobs are being outsourced faster than shit through a goose. Working conditions are suffering, job satisfaction is suffering, their work week is getting longer, pay is lagging, and we don't need to organize, dammit! Because we're special.
We're not "special" - our circumstances and mechanisms just happen to be unique. Just the way it is.
Yup - there's outsourcing, but 9/10 times, it comes back to bite the corporations that do it, and bites them right in the ass... usually in a spectacularly expensive way. Outsourcing is often touted as a big, bad boogeyman, but it has been around for what, 10-15 years now? Given that amount of time, you'd think that the entire global tech industry would be based in Mumbai or Hyderabad by now - yet it isn't. T
But the modern CEO very rarely stays at any company long enough to feel those effects. They come in, cut and slash, make their bonus...and their off to ruin the next company. Of course I might just be biased; I was recently "work force reduced" at HPE lol...but I got a severance package, so this time I didn't mind as much hahaha.
See, here's the thing: It's the wages at the bottom that set a floor for the wages the "high skill tech jobs" are paid. If there's a race to the bottom, you're on the short bus, boyo.
Like the wages of workers at fast food places set a floor for the wages of executive chefs at four star restaurants?
Tech workers see themselves as the "executive chefs at four star restaurants", when they're really just the bus boys. Even the best of them are just workers. You're not going to be on the cover of any magazine or get a reality TV show of you writing code.
One problem is that people don't jump from low-skill to high-skill instantaneously. We're building a situation that there are few entry-level jobs for new-grads which allow them to start developing the skills they need to get those "high-skill" jobs. In 20 years when we're all retired, who's going to replace us?
So you'd rather have US technology sector look like Detroit. Union jobs ensure that the union bosses live well and the workers still get screwed as the jobs move overseas anyways. Only difference is the risk of taking the entire company down to foreign competition instead of individual roles within the company because the company gets locked-in to whatever staffing model existed when times were good.
If your job can be done cheaper elsewhere, it will be. It's only a matter of time, and protectionism and unio
So you'd rather have US technology sector look like Detroit.
No, I'd rather have US workers in a system more like Germany's. a country of 80 million people that exports about as much as the United States w/ 350 million.
Don't let right-wing media delude you regarding organized labor. It's the main reason workers anywhere have a decent standard of living.
That's a bit misleading. German trade to Austria and Denmark is export. Microsoft sales from Washington to California are domestic. Germany is exporting so much *because* it's smaller !
That said, German labor relations are a lot healthier than most. Not a European thing, though: French unions are even worse than US unions, and don't shun violence. Ask Air France; strikers (with union backing) physically attacked managers.
Aaaaand.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Corporate shills claiming victory and deriding unions as evil in 3.. 2..
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Actually, it's a wash.
Unions do have a place and need in certain industries... it's just that tech isn't one of them. Anyone sufficiently competent in the tech industry can improve him/herself and get a better income over time - far faster than the typical Union could ever get you. There is a sufficient amount of work to be had out there for those who know what they're doing and can prove it... I think that only a brief 2-3 year period during the dot-bust was the main exception, in a field that has technica
Re:Aaaaand.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Tech is special, because we're tech workers and we're special.
Tech jobs are being outsourced faster than shit through a goose. Working conditions are suffering, job satisfaction is suffering, their work week is getting longer, pay is lagging, and we don't need to organize, dammit! Because we're special.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
We're not "special" - our circumstances and mechanisms just happen to be unique. Just the way it is.
Yup - there's outsourcing, but 9/10 times, it comes back to bite the corporations that do it, and bites them right in the ass... usually in a spectacularly expensive way. Outsourcing is often touted as a big, bad boogeyman, but it has been around for what, 10-15 years now? Given that amount of time, you'd think that the entire global tech industry would be based in Mumbai or Hyderabad by now - yet it isn't. T
Re:Aaaaand.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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See, here's the thing: It's the wages at the bottom that set a floor for the wages the "high skill tech jobs" are paid. If there's a race to the bottom, you're on the short bus, boyo.
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Tech workers see themselves as the "executive chefs at four star restaurants", when they're really just the bus boys. Even the best of them are just workers. You're not going to be on the cover of any magazine or get a reality TV show of you writing code.
Some people are still living in the '90s.
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So you'd rather have US technology sector look like Detroit. Union jobs ensure that the union bosses live well and the workers still get screwed as the jobs move overseas anyways. Only difference is the risk of taking the entire company down to foreign competition instead of individual roles within the company because the company gets locked-in to whatever staffing model existed when times were good.
If your job can be done cheaper elsewhere, it will be. It's only a matter of time, and protectionism and unio
Re:Aaaaand.. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, I'd rather have US workers in a system more like Germany's. a country of 80 million people that exports about as much as the United States w/ 350 million.
Don't let right-wing media delude you regarding organized labor. It's the main reason workers anywhere have a decent standard of living.
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That's a bit misleading. German trade to Austria and Denmark is export. Microsoft sales from Washington to California are domestic. Germany is exporting so much *because* it's smaller !
That said, German labor relations are a lot healthier than most. Not a European thing, though: French unions are even worse than US unions, and don't shun violence. Ask Air France; strikers (with union backing) physically attacked managers.
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And the US's exports are from an entire continent-sized country, not just a relatively-small country the size of Germany...