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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 turgid on Sunday July 02 2017, @09:42PM

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Sunday July 02 2017, @09:42PM (#534260) Journal

    I was brought up watching M*A*S*H. Corporal Clinger was always trying to get out under a Section 8. He had the right idea.

    When I went to secondary school we had a debating society which I joined (and became the Useful Idiot) run by the solitary Classical Studies teacher. We dipped our young toes into Classical Studies and it was most enlightening.

    Theses ancient Greeks were on to something, you know. If only they'd discovered electricity...

    Modern Western business, and society, wants to fail. The loonies are in charge and they're wilfully ignorant.

    Or something.

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