Ask Slashdot: What Would It Take For Developers To Start Their Own Union? 761
juicegg writes "TechCrunch contributor Klint Finley writes that developers have shunned unions because traditional workplace demands like higher pay are not important to us while traditional unions are incapable of advocating for what developers care about most while at work: autonomy and self-management. Is this how most developers feel? What about overtime, benefits, conditions for contractors and outsourcing concerns? Are there any issues big enough to get developers and techies to make collective demands or is it not worth the risk? Do existing unions offer advantages or is it better to start from scratch?"
It depends on the programming language (Score:5, Funny)
In C, it's pretty simple, though of course if you want a discriminated union you'll probably end up stuffing it into a struct along with a field that tells you how to interpret the union.
Re:NEWS: Higher pay no longer important. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Does *any* industry start a new union anymore? (Score:5, Funny)
Excuse me but your corporate over lords are over here laughing about your individual rights.
Re:Does *any* industry start a new union anymore? (Score:5, Funny)
What a brilliant idea; I completely agree! But... how to make it happen? I mean, this is just two people on Slashdot, we can't do much.
Maybe, and bear with me here, maybe we could get other people to join in. We could all push together for these rights. Not just people we know or are in contact with though, that wouldn't be enough. We'd need a whole organisation, country (or even world) wide. People could join to have a say in our policies and how we apply pressure to get our aims! (For a small cost, of course... I don't know about you, but I certainly don't have the resources to run something like this for free.)
With enough people on board, all demanding the same thing, we could truly be heard! Some employers may not wish people to join, but we could offer our resources to protect people, ensure that they are free to be represented, protected from mistreatment, and that when we are able to get these laws changed, that the new systems we fought for are actually followed.
If only there was some kind of system for uniting people in this way... Alas, it's just a pipedream.