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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday July 02 2017, @06:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the unionize-now dept.

Computing is notorious for not having a worthwhile professional association. Some practitioners join the IEEE, the IET or the ACM. However, membership typically costs hundreds of dollars per year and offers little practical help to computer professionals working in small companies. If you're working for government or a large corporation or you're a super programmer in a well funded start-up then you probably have a union or you don't need a union. However, if you're the sole techie in a small business, appreciation for your dedication is just the start. What happens when you're asked to do something unethical or illegal? Where do you turn when a job goes sour? How do you avoid the problem? How can you avoid really toxic employers?

Rather than paying hundreds of dollars per year for talks and conferences, you require local experts who have first-hand experience of local employers and local employment problems. How can this be achieved reliably and cost-effectively? This is where our expertise should shine. Firstly, union entry should be at least as stringent as the conceirge union. Secondly, there should be a web-of-trust within each metropolitan region (and ideally between regions). In the best case, the network distance between all members should be four or less. Thirdly, an obligatory website should incur less hits than SoylentNews and therefore an upper bound for costs can be established for a volunteer effort. Essentially, it should be possible to run a union from donations of US$3000 per year or significantly less. Indeed, the major cost to members would be food and drink expenses when informally meeting other members.

So who wants to join a computer professional union with sensible fees and obligations?


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday July 02 2017, @12:56PM (6 children)

    Yeah, that is far more sane than the union situation in the US and something I might even be agreeable to. Here, unless you are in a "right to work" state, pretty much every unionized shop is a closed shop with only one union present; you either join it or you don't work there. Unions routinely contribute to political parties, (Excuse me, political party. It's always the Democrats.) and are synonymous with corruption, strong-arm tactics, and actual mob ties once you get above a local level. Most of the laws in place throughout the nation are in place to protect unions and allow the corruption to continue, though "right to work" legislation has recently started gaining ground in some states.

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    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday July 02 2017, @10:07PM (5 children)

    by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Sunday July 02 2017, @10:07PM (#534267)

    Here, unless you are in a "right to work" state, pretty much every unionized shop is a closed shop with only one union present; you either join it or you don't work there. Unions routinely contribute to political parties, (Excuse me, political party. It's always the Democrats.) and are synonymous with corruption, strong-arm tactics, and actual mob ties once you get above a local level. Most of the laws in place throughout the nation are in place to protect unions and allow the corruption to continue, though "right to work" legislation has recently started gaining ground in some states.

    Nice that you ignore the long history of abuses of "right to work". "Right to work" means, union or no, that you as an employee have no rights other than what an employer chooses to grant you, for only as long as they choose to grant them. It is pretty much a turn back towards the days when employer abuse brought about the formations of unions in the first place. These things go in cycles I suppose, and conservatives tend to have a short memory of history, dooming us to repeat it over and over.

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 03 2017, @01:16AM (3 children)

      No, my socialist friend, what it means is you cannot tell anyone who hires on at your shop "Nice job you got there. Be a shame if something happened to it." Unions in the US are largely nothing but an extortion racket arm of the DNC.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 03 2017, @09:43AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 03 2017, @09:43AM (#534395)

        Inability to understand legislation like this pretty much ensures you will never be able to retire as middle class. Almost deserved.

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 03 2017, @10:23AM

          I have zero problems being in whatever class I choose to be in. I have zero problems saving for my own retirement, social security and 401K be damned. Sell that shit to someone who doesn't know how to take care of themselves.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday July 06 2017, @10:10PM

        by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Thursday July 06 2017, @10:10PM (#535908)

        No, my socialist friend, what it means is you cannot tell anyone who hires on at your shop "Nice job you got there. Be a shame if something happened to it."

        Except this is exactly what happens in "right to work" states. One minute you have a job, the next you do not. It does not matter how good you are if you run afoul of the wrong person, some manager is having a bad day and wants to take it out on (or scapegoat) an employee, someone wants to put a friend in your position, management does not understand what you do, whatever. You have no recourse, no ability to protest the decision, no one to help you should you be wrongfully fired, you are out the door without a second thought.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @03:32AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 04 2017, @03:32AM (#534669)

      Right to work means a lot more than that. Right to work means that no third party is supposed to be able to insert themselves in a willing employment contract. It also means that employees can tell employers to take the job and shove it, and that unions can't extract money from unwilling participants.

      Footnote: this depends upon actual enforcement of things like RICO.