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
Woah there Hoss. Not so sure about that. We regularly hear about ridiculous crunches and there are plenty of IT workers being treated like crap by management through offshoring, sick leave abuse, holiday abuse or whatever. I recently had to sign a contract with a previous employer that threatened to sack me if I called in ill with a stress or mental related condition. Now that' clearly unenforceable but that's the kind of shit they pull.
I can see why there'd be a tension between someone who can make out a
" a contract with a previous employer that threatened to sack me if I called in ill with a stress or mental related condition" Wow, that, to me at least, just sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. For me, my "mental condition" is ADD; so it's far more likely that I would forget to call in at all lol.
In an "at will" state, you can only win a suit if you can show you were let go for being a member of a protected class (not just being in a protected class; in this state, for example, it's illegal to discriminate against me for being over forty and less than sixty-five, for being male, for being white, for being heterosexual, and a few other things), or for refusing sexual advances, or other limited things like that. Mentally ill people and people who are really stressed out are not a protected class.
When I was at AT&T, I found out that my ADD fell under the Americans with Disabilities Act; the union there helped me force them to give me a few "reasonable accommodations" and stopped them from flat-out firing me for about a month. What eventually tripped me up was their "disability insurance company" called Sedwick who kept "loosing" various paperwork my doctor faxed in...eventually I "pointed out" for being late because Sedwick lost my paperwork so many times my doctor refused to fax it in again (after at least 5 times). The union said that, under the ADA, I most likely could win a lawsuit even though Oklahoma is a "right to work state" but I already had a job lined up at IBM. I had JUST started taking my meds while at AT since then I have gotten the whole "being late" under control and it rarely happens any more; I really wasn't abusing the policy but actually working really hard to get many ADD-related issues under control.
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
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I can see why there'd be a tension between someone who can make out a
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In an "at will" state, you can only win a suit if you can show you were let go for being a member of a protected class (not just being in a protected class; in this state, for example, it's illegal to discriminate against me for being over forty and less than sixty-five, for being male, for being white, for being heterosexual, and a few other things), or for refusing sexual advances, or other limited things like that. Mentally ill people and people who are really stressed out are not a protected class.
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Re:Aaaaand.. (Score:2)