IT workers don't need to unionize

By HARRIS MILLER
Network World, 06/04/01

Unions have their purpose in industrial society, especially in businesses in which there are clear distinctions between labor and management, and many employees are "lifers." But signing away bargaining power to a union boss is against the interest of today's highly skilled, highly mobile high-tech workers.

Today's high-tech workers are in the driver's seat. The demand for technical workers with the skills to drive the New Economy remains high, despite the current economic slowdown. According to a recent study by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), this year hiring managers in IT and non-IT companies will attempt to fill more than 900,000 new IT jobs. Of those, about 425,000 jobs will go unfilled due to a lack of qualified workers.

A major reason union membership lacks appeal for these workers is that they are in such great demand in a tight market. This demand creates high salaries, unique job opportunities and extraordinary benefits such as flexible hours and four-digit bonuses for referring other qualified workers. In these favorable conditions, the union promise of job security is not of interest. High-tech workers' skills are the best job protection for them.

Tech workers are not interested in voting on contracts that put them on equal financial footing with others with the same seniority. They are as driven by intellectual challenges as they are by compensation. They like to be part of the management team, and often share the same perquisites as the so-called higher ups, including stock options. Technology organizations tend to be flat, with few indicators of who is management and who is not.

If technology workers are not happy with their working conditions or lack of intellectual challenge, they vote with their feet. Mobility is the hallmark of a skilled techie. The ITAA's study found that hiring managers in IT companies expect the average technical support worker to stay on board a mere 22 months before moving on to greener pastures. In non-IT companies, these experts are expected to peel off after just two and a half years. The plethora of hiring organizations available - almost 14,000 IT companies and 305,000 non-IT companies, according to the ITAA's study - affords them flexibility and innumerable workplace options.

Technology workers believe in themselves and their abilities. They do not want union-dictated seniority systems; they are individualistic and want to get ahead on their own merits. Many techies choose to be consultants or independent contractors, rejecting a single employer, let alone a union card.

Unions have their place. But for today's high-tech workers, union membership would minimize job flexibility, reduce the ability to negotiate wages and stifle the creativity that has made the U.S. IT industry the world leader. High-tech workers have consistently rejected efforts to organize them and will continue to frown upon unions as a useful or desirable move.

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Miller is president of the ITAA, a trade association representing the U.S. IT industry. He can be reached at hmiller@itaa.org.

The opposing view
By Mike Blain, president of WashTech, a Seattle affiliate of the Communications Workers of America.

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