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From an article in Computerworld:
Ten U.S. senators, representing the political spectrum, are seeking a federal investigation into displacement of IT workers by H-1B-using contractors.
They are asking the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Labor Department to investigate the use of the H-1B program "to replace large numbers of American workers" at Southern California Edison (SCE) and other employers.
Rather than all of us just griping on Soylent and 'that other site' about H-1B tech workers flooding in while there are plenty of Americans looking for work, these IT workers had a union, and got the attention of 10 senators to look into this issue. Southern California Edison laid off a bunch of American IT workers to replace them with H-1B Indians, and their union (since they are a utility, they happened to have had one), came to the rescue with a huge media campaign and now investigations by US Senators.
(Score: 3, Informative) by kaszz on Saturday April 11 2015, @09:45PM
Unions can be useful but they can also start telling you at which hours you are allowed to work. That you can't swap a Sunday for a Wednesday. That you must have smoking pause regardless if you smoke. That you can't work a lot one week and take time off the next.
The controlling body of the union can be hijacked by various interests. The IT industry has many individualists. They can exploit the situation by jacking up fees and discriminate against those that haven't joined and so on. Or make a deal with a company to use their crap technology.
So watch out..
Perhaps, if you need a union. You are in the wrong business..
(Score: 1) by deadstick on Saturday April 11 2015, @09:59PM
Perhaps, if you need a union. You are in the wrong business..
If you're in the writing business, I'd say you need one...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 11 2015, @10:17PM
This isn't paid writing so spelling etc quality is optimized accordingly.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2015, @11:30PM
Well, OK, but what about punctuation? Are you ever going to "optimize" that?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Magic Oddball on Sunday April 12 2015, @02:19AM
The vast majority of professional/serious writers I've been aware of (via blogs, interviews in Writer's Digest, etc.) only lightly edit unpaid recreational work like comments, but include spell-checking as part of it. Compared to producing multiple drafts of intense editing to make their paid/important work the best they can manage, clicking a little wavy line away is nothing.
I can't recall who said it, but my stance on using correct capitals, fixing basic errors, etc. is best summed up as (said conversationally, not actually aimed at you): if you don't feel what you have to say is important enough to make that small an effort, what makes you think it's important enough for others to take the time to read it? With expletives added as needed, of course. ;-)
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @04:08AM
That's a non sequitur. I've read plenty of things with poor spelling, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization that were nonetheless very informative. The ad hominems usually come from people who can't comprehend basic logic, or comprehend the fact that they are being extremely shallow.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 12 2015, @12:54PM
If bad writing were the problem. The person would have pointed out the errors explicitly so that one can learn.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @10:13PM
I can't recall who said it, but my stance on using correct capitals, fixing basic errors, etc. is best summed up as (said conversationally, not actually aimed at you): if you don't feel what you have to say is important enough to make that small an effort, what makes you think it's important enough for others to take the time to read it.
Because no amount of effort is free. I put all my effort into the ideas.
Would you prefer worse logic, less research and a more shallow topical understanding in exchange for better capitalization?
I don't.
Human language is explicitly redundant so that ideas can be communicated despite minor errors in transmission like spelling errors.
(Score: 2) by fadrian on Sunday April 12 2015, @12:48PM
spelling etc quality is optimized accordingly.
Seems like the opposite to me, as writing has rules so as to be understood.
That is all.
(Score: 1) by deadstick on Saturday April 25 2015, @07:46PM
Guess I'm a sucker...I spell correctly for free.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2015, @10:02PM
Called them professional association... I am a member of a union that goes by the name of x company professionals association and I don't get any of the shit you talk about. US it professional should do like the doctors and the lawers: enforce proper education and competency standards, police your members and act as a political force.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @01:32AM
> it professional should do like the doctors
That would be great. Then our technology infrastructure could cost as much as our healthcare does.
(Score: 2) by fadrian on Sunday April 12 2015, @12:50PM
our technology infrastructure could cost as much as our healthcare does.
If it did, maybe we'd do a better job of it.
That is all.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2015, @10:42PM
Unions have lots of issues, but your statement is nothing but FUD.
I work for a college, and I refuse to join our union. It is only because that is the only way to withold the portion of dues used for political contributions (I pay the rest of the dues, but cannot vote in union elections). The parent union contributed to the Republican Governor's association which helped elect Scott Walker who immediately went on a union busting spree. They gave tons of money to the Democrat party as well, and helped elect pro school privatization candidates like Obama. Hilariously / sadly, the two main teachers unions in California took opposite positions on nearly all ballot measures a couple elections ago-- solidarity-- right. So, their contributions simply canceled out.
The top leaders of most of these unions are rich folks who have never worked a day in their lives in the fields of those they supposedly represent. They play golf at the same clubs as the CEOs of the companies they are supposedly representing the workers of. Their children attend the same private schools as those corporate executive's children. They live in the same gated communities. These rich scum just like any other rich scum, encourage no strike clauses which eviscerate the power of the union members.
However, unions are the only reason we have any worker protections/rights in the US at all. But, for them to continue to be relevant, we need to take control back. It is the same rich bastards controlling unions, government, corporations, police, military, and everything else. We are at a point where my school can kick out the existing union and switch. I am lobbying for joining the IWW, the only real union left. And, of course I encourage others to break free from voting for the Democrat-Republican Corporate party candidates. But, too much a coward to stop paying my taxes that support our wars of aggression around the word on behalf of the rich parasite class.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Sunday April 12 2015, @02:26AM
The top leaders of most of these unions are rich folks who have never worked a day in their lives in the fields of those they supposedly represent. They play golf at the same clubs as the CEOs of the companies they are supposedly representing the workers of. Their children attend the same private schools as those corporate executive's children. They live in the same gated communities. These rich scum just like any other rich scum, encourage no strike clauses which eviscerate the power of the union members.
A Doonesbury strip years ago, in which Duke found out he was being replaced as the ambassador to China by Leonard Woodcock, had Duke replying to a comment that Woodcock had shown great sensitivity to the working class with "Honey, all labor leaders show great sensitivity to the working class. That's how they avoid belonging to it".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2015, @11:22PM
> Unions can be useful but they can also start telling you at which hours you are allowed to work.
Surprise! Tools don't make you a craftsman, but even a craftsman can't do much without tools.
Good judgment is necessary in all human endeavours and anyone who tries to factor it out will eventually end up with bad results.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2015, @11:57PM
Why the fuck is the parent comment modded Offtopic? It's totally on-topic.
The modding system here is pretty broken if a good, on-topic comment like that is modded Offtopic. Why the fuck isn't something being done to fix that bad modding? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @06:59AM
It's modded +3 now. What do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TheGratefulNet on Sunday April 12 2015, @12:14AM
if you need a union. You are in the wrong business..
no, if you work for a business in the dog-eat-dog country of USA, you need unions.
were you not paying attention to what happened 100 years ago? we all forgot, it seems, and we let big business get powerful again without a matching balance of power in labor.
keep voting against your own best interest; but I promise you, you WILL run into a nasty boss or company that you will then make you wish you had someone more than 'just you' to fight for you.
or, are we just supposed to keep accepting anything big companies want to do to us? afterall, they would NEVER take advantage of the high unemployment and factors such as those. no, they'd never stoop that low.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @03:33AM
> no, if you work for a business in the dog-eat-dog country of USA, you need unions.
In the US there has been a very strong correlation [epi.org] between union coverage and income equality.
If unions made things worse, all the declines in union membership over the last 40 years should have produced a booming economy.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 12 2015, @12:51PM
Unions are good (with some caveats). It's more about moving into a industry where you actually have leverage against the employer without unions. When you need them it's because you haven't enough leverage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2015, @12:26AM
The best thing that ever happened to our "T" union, was the day we voted them out. Ok, we lost one day off per year, but no more dues, better pay, and we're no longer feeding the lazy pigs.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Sunday April 12 2015, @04:16AM
First off, most unions don't do that. They aren't dumb, and usually want more freedom for their members at the expense of management.
Second, you might want to notice that all of the scheduling scenarios you're talking about could be denied by the boss at least as easily as by the union.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 13 2015, @04:21PM
Golly gosh, I'm not in a unionized field. So that means that I can come in and work whenever I want, as much or as little as I want? Wow! I'm gonna go tell my boss that right now, I'm sure he'll be thrilled to know that!
And I no longer have to take a smoking pause? Maybe I can get a non-smoking pause....
Unions can discriminate against non-union employees? I want to live in the state you live in! In most states one can withhold joining the union and only lose the right to vote for union officers. (Which is very unlike the 'right to work' bullshit being fed by certain anti-union conservatives.)
And it's the union that decides to make deals with other companies for exclusivity of tools? Not my IT department? Wow, that's news to me.
Perhaps, if you don't need a union, you're from a country where you're parasiting off the lack of U.S. unions, and/or a paid shill from a foreign government.
So what country are you actually writing from, comrade?
Dufus.