Re:Tech Workers Deserve a Union: An Interview with Ethan Mar...
by scoofy on Thursday September 14, 2023 @02:38PM
(#37512942)
We seem to have based our ideas of on the excesses of the 1970's.
The idea of a tech union could simply be establishing the very basics. The expectations of the folks I know in the industry include more than 40 hour weeks, significant unpaid overtime during "crunch" periods. Managers promising the world to clients without even consulting the devs. Illegitimate H1-B hiring, and unspoken threats to H1-B workers when they are voluntold to do extra, unpaid work.
Again, I understand the hesitancy, but a tech union could be much more akin to the Screen Actors Guild, where the vast majority of the negotiation is about how the lowest-ranking get a fair shake, while the superstars barely notice the union. The benefits to the superstars, however, are obvious. When you have major players on record of egregious crimes of illegal non-competes a decade ago, which probably cost the superstars literally millions of dollars each over their careers, I would hope they would want to be on board too.
Unions can suck. They don't have to suck. I would think a bunch of habitually online, highly-skeptical, analytic, and systemic-focused folks like us could actively make them not suck.
The idea of a tech union could simply be establishing the very basics. The expectations of the folks I know in the industry include more than 40 hour weeks, significant unpaid overtime during "crunch" periods. Managers promising the world to clients without even consulting the devs. Illegitimate H1-B hiring, and unspoken threats to H1-B workers when they are voluntold to do extra, unpaid work.
Again, I understand the hesitancy, but a tech union could be much more akin to the Screen Actors Guild, where the vast majority of the negotiation is about how the lowest-ranking get a fair shake, while the superstars barely notice the union. The benefits to the superstars, however, are obvious. When you have major players on record of egregious crimes of illegal non-competes a decade ago, which probably cost the superstars literally millions of dollars each over their careers, I would hope they would want to be on board too.
Unions can suck. They don't have to suck. I would think a bunch of habitually online, highly-skeptical, analytic, and systemic-focused folks like us could actively make them not suck.