IT workers need a union

By MIKE BLAIN
Network World, 06/04/01

IT workers should form a union for the same reason that workers have always formed unions: together we have more power to improve the terms and conditions of our employment than we do as individuals.

But if you are any good, you shouldn't have any problems with the terms or conditions of your employment, right? If you work hard and keep your skills up, you will be treated fairly and be highly compensated.

In some cases it works out that way. But in many cases, years of 60-hour weeks and taking classes on your own dime to keep up with technology leave you in the unemployment line, after being laid off with no notice. In other cases, you may be the best contract XML programmer around but still find yourself coerced into signing lopsided noncompete agreements imposed by staffing agencies to obtain employment. Or you may be content with your current job but tired of legislative attacks on overtime pay - attacks that single out hourly computer workers for exemption from labor laws.

In each of these examples, your negotiating power and your ability to affect change is limited. Individual workers rarely are able to negotiate the terms, timing or notification of layoffs. Union workers under contract almost always can. By organizing under the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech), Amazon.com customer service workers who had not yet bargained a contract were able to pressure the company into giving more than 500 laid-off workers one of the best severance packages in the industry.

At Microsoft, individual "permatemps" asked their agencies for several years for better medical plans and greater employer co-pays. Those requests always fell on deaf ears - until they began organizing under WashTech. Through collective action, WashTech members highlighted the workplace and benefit coverage issues facing long-term contractors and pressured Microsoft and the agencies to take action. Within a year, thousands of workers obtained improved benefits.

When it comes to training, many employers are reluctant to invest any money in improving skills of employees who may then jump ship. In some cases, economics make it difficult for employers to invest in training. But in many cases, it is plain short-sightedness. Through partnerships with employers, and their own training programs, unions can provide workers with access to high-quality, affordable training, no matter what their employment situation.

Finally, by joining a union, you become part of a larger community of workers committed to helping and supporting one another. You have a resource to contact when you have questions about contracts, overtime laws or even the ins and outs of various stock option plans. And, as clichéd as it may sound, you have a voice, a collective voice that cannot be ignored.

Related links

The opposing view
By Harris Miller, president of the ITAA, a trade association representing the U.S. IT industry.

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