Unions

Unionizing seems to have a new mission to represent workers in the tech industry. There is an underlying fear that more companies might find themselves having to work with unions. They should be worried because what exactly do these unions represent except equal pay for equal jobs regardless of your experience with salary caps around each job including all the perks such a vacation. This does not bode well for hiring innovative people. We can point directly to the teachers union to see what has happened to one of the most important jobs in this country.

Some industries should be unionized although always questionable if the amount that comes out of each individual’s paycheck to support a group of people who negotiate on your behalf are not corrupt and doing the right thing as we have seen in the past. But some industries such as the movie industry need unions. Unions changed the entire industry by giving everyone the respect they deserved for each individual job that makes content from actors down to the grips. That makes total sense to me.

Unions began because people were getting injured. Remember Norma Rae? It wasn’t just about money it was about being safe and respected as an individual. Thank god that unions forced the people at that top of these companies that they had a responsibility to create a positive workplace. They obviously didn’t do such a good job at the Coors plant where someone shot someone a few weeks ago in what appears to be an extremely toxic environment. But I stray.

What is the point of unions in today’s pure technology companies where nothing is physically made but code and everything operates around that platform? The only thing that is clear to me is to keep jobs without fueling innovation. Bad management and lazy cultures are not going to be improved with unions if anything it will make them worse.