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On 2006-05-24, Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
> The Most Powerful Labor Union in the World: Linux?
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| This is power that Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and many governments could
>| only dream of having. The power to control the press and the skills
>| contained in this organization are likely capable of disrupting travel,
>| power grids and other broad national infrastructure systems if their
>| demands are not met.
> `----
>
> http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/43413.html
"For several years a number of us have been anticipating the emergence of
a Software Labor Union. The argument has not been whether it will emerge
but what form it will take. The conditions for forming technology unions
have never been better."
IMHO, this would be disastrous. I am 43 years old. I have *NEVER* seen a
labor union, whether for skilled or manual labor, that was a _good_ thing
for it's members. For that matter, I have never seen a labor union that
was a good thing for it's society in general. For instance, the teachers
union in the U.S., amoung other things, is directly responsible for the
protection of inept and in some cases, grossly negligent teachers. It is
so difficult to fire an incompetant or blatently innapropriate teacher,
as to make it practically impossible. A long and costly arbitration process
must be called, and the actions of anyone involved with the environment
the individual works in, examined. During this time, the teacher in
question continues to teach, draw benefits, and salary, and this can go
on for a year+ , easily. At the end of this process, the school board
still may not be able to fire the teacher. Often, the board would rather
give the teacher the golden handshake than go through the process. Even
nationwide academic standards and policies are governed by the union,
which IMO goes a long way toward expaining the fact that the U.S. public
education system is a deeply defective system, frequently producing
students who are incapable of the most basic of academic skills.
This, of course is not to say that this kind of teacher represents
teachers as a group. It does not. As a group, the majority of teachers
are hard working individuals that are professional and proud of their work.
My mother in law is one of these individudals; she is retired after somthing
like 28 years in the classroom.
I am in nursing. In two different hospitals that I have worked, the nurses
union has attempted to wedge their way into the hospital by attempting to
grass root it, thus starting a signature drive. Fortunately, in both cases
it didn't work. Kaiser Permanente health system however, sometime back, *did*
get a labor union, and the Kaiser hospitals are now known for their poor
level of care.
My point is that the history of unions does not boad well for the future
of IT if unionised.
regards,
Mathew
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--
"Always do the right thing: It will delight / Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanies
some and astound the rest" - Mark Twain / Psychotronic protection, low prices
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