Tech unions?
Unions for tech workers?Most of my professional life has been spent as a member of a union (The Newspaper Guild) and I'm under no illusion that the working class would be better off had things been left to the largesse of the bosses, or to the vagaries of a cutthroat, free-market meritocracy. Regardless of the industry, virtually all of the workplace comforts and benefits we take for granted today exist solely because of battles fought and won long ago by once-powerful unions.
Forty years ago, nearly one private-sector worker in three belonged to a union. Today, that number has dwindled to around 10 percent and there's little to suggest that a revival is nigh.
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Worse, it kills me to admit that, to a large degree, the erosion of the labor movement is the fault of the unions themselves. Their refusal or inability to change with the times, to keep the movement relevant in the face of globalization and the digital conversion -- the so-called new economy -- has been disastrous.
Disastrous, I might add, for union members and nonunion workers alike.
Just as the Democratic Party has largely ceded the battlefield to Republican stridency in recent years, so, too, has organized labor wilted before an economy where the unrestrained market rules all. The result is unsurprising: The rich get richer, the shareholder is valued more than the employee, jobs are eliminated in the name of bottom-line efficiency (remember when they called firing people "right-sizing"?) and the gulf between the rich and the working class grows wider every year.
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They'll offshore your job to save a few bucks or lay you off at the first sign of a slump, but they're the first to scream, "You're stifling innovation!" at any attempt to control the industry or provide job security for the people who do the actual work.
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A lot of repossessed condos are no doubt papered with worthless stock options.
Those weaned on an Ayn Rand kind of individualism aren't likely to appreciate the debt they owe to the American labor movement, or why restoring it to health is in their interests, too. Until the ax falls; then they understand.
...
Labor is finally waking up to the new economy, and a younger leadership understands its obligation to be there for the new generation of America's working class. The key is to convince this generation that unity is strength and that a balanced workplace -- one that places the employee's interests on a par with management's -- is healthy for all concerned. Can it be done?
Yes, says Marcus Courtney, president of WashTech, a union representing technology workers.
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"Increasingly, white-collar workers' wages are stagnant, and companies are outsourcing jobs overseas and replacing U.S. employees with guest workers. These are all issues and reasons why employees would organize: to have a voice on the job."
...
"Corporations have waged a 40-year campaign against unionization in this country," he said.
...
Courtney points to the situation at Cingular, where 20,000 employees recently organized under the Communications Workers of America after management agreed not to involve itself in the workers' choice of unionization.
"This is a young work force," Courtney said. "If it was anti-union no one would have joined."
So, will we ever see a unionized Microsoft? With his own union working on the Redmond behemoth, Courtney certainly won't rule it out.
Tech workers' unions. It's been time for them for a number of years, actually.
Forty years ago, nearly one private-sector worker in three belonged to a union. Today, that number has dwindled to around 10 percent and there's little to suggest that a revival is nigh.
...
Worse, it kills me to admit that, to a large degree, the erosion of the labor movement is the fault of the unions themselves. Their refusal or inability to change with the times, to keep the movement relevant in the face of globalization and the digital conversion -- the so-called new economy -- has been disastrous.
Disastrous, I might add, for union members and nonunion workers alike.
Just as the Democratic Party has largely ceded the battlefield to Republican stridency in recent years, so, too, has organized labor wilted before an economy where the unrestrained market rules all. The result is unsurprising: The rich get richer, the shareholder is valued more than the employee, jobs are eliminated in the name of bottom-line efficiency (remember when they called firing people "right-sizing"?) and the gulf between the rich and the working class grows wider every year.
...
They'll offshore your job to save a few bucks or lay you off at the first sign of a slump, but they're the first to scream, "You're stifling innovation!" at any attempt to control the industry or provide job security for the people who do the actual work.
...
[next page]
...
A lot of repossessed condos are no doubt papered with worthless stock options.
Those weaned on an Ayn Rand kind of individualism aren't likely to appreciate the debt they owe to the American labor movement, or why restoring it to health is in their interests, too. Until the ax falls; then they understand.
...
Labor is finally waking up to the new economy, and a younger leadership understands its obligation to be there for the new generation of America's working class. The key is to convince this generation that unity is strength and that a balanced workplace -- one that places the employee's interests on a par with management's -- is healthy for all concerned. Can it be done?
Yes, says Marcus Courtney, president of WashTech, a union representing technology workers.
...
"Increasingly, white-collar workers' wages are stagnant, and companies are outsourcing jobs overseas and replacing U.S. employees with guest workers. These are all issues and reasons why employees would organize: to have a voice on the job."
...
"Corporations have waged a 40-year campaign against unionization in this country," he said.
...
Courtney points to the situation at Cingular, where 20,000 employees recently organized under the Communications Workers of America after management agreed not to involve itself in the workers' choice of unionization.
"This is a young work force," Courtney said. "If it was anti-union no one would have joined."
So, will we ever see a unionized Microsoft? With his own union working on the Redmond behemoth, Courtney certainly won't rule it out.
Tech workers' unions. It's been time for them for a number of years, actually.