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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: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday July 02 2017, @07:50PM (2 children)

    Southerners identify "union" with the army that swept through their area in 1865 and destroyed everything it could find.

    If that wasn't a bit of tongue-in-cheek snark, you are epically uninformed and should STFU now before you further embarrass yourself.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 03 2017, @02:40AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 03 2017, @02:40AM (#534315)

    One assumes your hometown wasn't on Sherman's route.
    Mine was.
    A century later, the work "Yankee" wasn't heard without it being preceded by "damned".

    The word "union" definitely has a related foul connotation to this day.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 03 2017, @10:27AM

      Context, my gradeschool-failing friend, context. Even southerners are capable of using and understanding it.

      And, yes, Yankees should be preceded by "God damned, carpetbagging, snare-drumming". Unless you're talking about the baseball team.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.