Looking at the world that the free market is creating for the next generation. It seems like collective bargaining is going to be how the 99% move the 1%.
There is no general, modern Information Technology workers union. But there couldn"t be more of a need with inflation, horrible wages, corporations who couldn’t care, and a large diverse workforce.
I definitely would like to know more about this. I’ve had my bachelor’s in computer science for 10 years now and still haven’t been able to find a job for it, so much to the point I’m starting to forget things and don’t have the money to try to go for my Masters. I know this has nothing to do with your Union idea but I would still like to contribute in any way I can.
I like this. I didn’t realize how evil the ‘at will’ employment clause is until half my department got axed during covid
I think aim needs to be a method of communal intellectual property holding, and sharing.
A group of individuals should come together to produce something they all believed in. Ideally without further entanglements beyond an engagement or campaign. If this happens while sharing in a portion collective successes of their efforts. In my opinion a workers core is what you want, along side, with, or a part of a union. This form could allow for contracts. and gig work and allow for a community to form around the art. In my opinion this model would be ideal.
The more I think about it the more I believe this is a great idea, especially for women in the IT field due to what happened with Google a couple of years back
I left IT site to bring discriminated against as a black woman. IT bros are too individualistic.
I’ve seen this brought up before and some hurdles need addressing:
I don’t have a better answer. But a union that can allow great flexibility between roles and still provide the same benefits would be the starting point for IT unionization.
I have thought about your second point often.
There could also be a benefit to the employer. A union could have a workers skills challenges that would allow vetting training and certification by a union on their claim of expertise. Obviously the union would need to maintain credibility so maybe a third party should administer the actual testing.
Also continuing training is another big one.
For certification we already have several third party organizations that can be leaned on, most notably CompTIA which provides baseline certifications that are accepted globally.
I feel that for an IT union to work it has to be all encompassing and provide benefits that wouldn’t be available elsewhere. Rather than separating based on department (security, networking, devops, help desk, database, etc.) the union represents anyone who works with digital infrastructure. This makes it harder to establish as it requires more hands to jumpstart, but it also prevents the division and hostility that could be used to divide and conquer.
To incentivize joining and maintaining membership we could reintroduce the apprenticeship system. A wide net of talent allows for the sharing of skills and experiences. This creates a skilled workforce both capable and rapidly adapting to trend; appealing for employers and employees alike. This is a huge wish list item however, as it requires time and investment from employees outside of work. If it could be done it would give amazing leverage for union membership and negotiations.
Hella!
I love this it is all very good, I have made very similar observations. There should be pools indeed and it should be about interests / skills. Then a support for traditional social media structure.
We seem to be very similar in approach, I am glad to see a kindred spirit.
Maybe more like guilds and clans systems mixed with trade education.
I’m loving these suggestions