Hey Devs, happy Friday 🦥💚
As always, it's been an eventful week in the tech industry. We've got a lot to talk about! And today I want to discuss...labor unions in the tech industry.
Labor unions are on the rise in the United States, from the WGA and SAG strikes in the entertainment industry to the growth of unions in the healthcare, education, and service industries in the post-COVID era. And they're starting to make some waves in tech, too.
Push to unionize tech industry makes advances
Recent organizing pushes among YouTube contractors and Sega of America workers have made fresh inroads.
axios.com
The technology industry is relatively new compared to commonly unionized industries (such as entertainment, automotive, and the trades). It's also fast-paced and quickly evolving. For these reasons, the early history of tech unions is still being written.
The idea of unionizing tech workers also hinges on who counts as a "tech worker." Check out this article from Axios:
2022 was tech's biggest year yet for labor unions and workplace organizing
But unions had their greatest wins on the industry's fringes, in Amazon warehouses, Apple stores and game studios..
axios.com
So far, tech's labor activism has largely moved on the margins of the industry, with Amazon warehouse workers, Apple Store employees and video game QA testers leading organizing efforts, while engineers, product teams and other headquarters staff mostly shied away.
So, what do you think? Is it time for tech workers to unionize? How might software developers organize to improve our industry together? Share your thoughts in the comments and let's discuss!
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Top comments (7)
I’ve been working in tech for 25 years. I think more unions in tech would be a positive development.
What are the things that a union would want? The only thing that immediately comes to mind is overtime pay. In some states there are laws that enable employers to demand unlimited overtime with zero extra pay. That hasn't been a sore spot for me. I haven't worked for a company that exploited it for many years.
Could there be unexpected side effects? Could it renew interest in sending jobs offshore? Could something really weird happen like a union deciding that developers shouldn't have to write tests?
Hell yes to unions!
I currently belong to 2 unions, Teamsters (truck drivers) and IUOE (operators). I've worked with several unions in the construction industry such as Laborers, Welders, Ironworkers, Masons. In short, at this time I am against unionizing the tech industry. The one biggest problem with unions is the difficulty and reluctance to change and innovate which is the life blood of tech. I would have to see what a tech union would look like. I think it can be done. For example, I do like the way IUOE is structured. When a company hires a journeyman crane operator, by contractual obligation, they have to also hire an apprentice for that operator. The apprentice is paid according to their skill level in their apprenticeship. An apprenticeship covers 4 years of schooling and work experience at the end of which they "top out" as journeymen. Year one apprentices are paid less than half what a journeyman is paid. Year two are paid a larger percentage, year three more, and so on. I like this idea for tech to bring a standard of quality to the industry. If the point of unionizing, however, is to secure employment for sub par performers and reward those sub par performers and generate a toxic work environment between unionized programmers and non-unionized management, I'd rather deal with negotiating my own wages and competing by my own merits in the field than to be stuck working under someone with less talent and ambition than me but gets paid more or has better benefits and job security simply because he/she has worked there longer.
In a country without good labour laws that actually protect employees then unions can certainly be helpful. Mostly I think unions should handle stuff like ensuring workers are fairly paid and have good working conditions (sufficient time off, breaks while working, not been fired for no reason, etc.) rather than making rules for what workers can and cannot do.
However if a country has good labour laws then unions should not be needed and can in fact wreak havoc on a country (e.g. how some of the unions in South Africa behave). A union should never have a political agenda but should purely be there to protect the work force and keep employers in line.
In addition companies are notorious for wriggling out of things and finding legal loopholes so they might start hiring cheap labour from overseas or deciding their workforce are now independent contractors with no rights compared to salaried employees (again this happens in South Africa quite a lot with companies trying to get around our labour law requirements for salaried employees and I can only imagine how much worse it would be in the US).
So unionise against bad working conditions by all means but be cautious in how much power you give the unions and never force workers to be part of them.
It works the other way around 100% of the time.
Labor laws are poor, workers organize and first at the company level, they got backslash, sometimes they win, sometimes other unions win at other companies, and if everything goes well, much later, they get good labor laws.
As a counter example, the US has been fighting a merciless and efficient war against its unions after the New Deal era was over, and unsurprisingly its labor laws are really bad compared to say Scandinavia.
Unions, of course.