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BBLISA: Re: Overqualified?!?!



Thanks for posting this Arthur. I do agree that there are many unions for 
professionals where the members themselves act professionally, and the 
union establishes a good working relationship with management. 
However, there are a couple of problems with unions in IT (note that I am a 
software engineer, not a system administrator). 
The first is that every union is an organization and generally exhibits 
organizational behavior. (This usually translates into lower worker 
productivity, more workers).
The second is work rules. Work rules are necessary for a lot of very good 
reasons. For one, they define the scope of the bargaining unit. Another, 
they define safety practices. The problem is that they also tend to 
eliminate flexibility. For example, in my department we have a small system 
admin group who manages most of the lab computers, and they help us out 
with the desktop systems. But we engineers are expected to manage our own 
systems. There are also systems in the lab that some of the engineers 
either maintain or reconfigure. If the company unionized the IT people, it 
could make it difficult to do our jobs, because of the overlap of function. 

In the extreme example is a bus company:
To work on an engine, a sheet metal guy is needed to open the skins, and 
electricion to disconnect the electrical stuff, and the mechanic to work on 
the engine. Another is a jet aircraft where the union requires a flight 
engineer. In my experience (as a military pilot) the only aircraft that 
actually needed a flight engineer was the Lockheed Super Constellation. 
Back in the 60s and 70s this was a big fight with the newer, smaller jets 
coming out at the time.  

On 18 Jul 2002 at 15:18, Arthur Gaer wrote:

> I happen to strongly agree with rek2's comment.
> 
> Although many in the IT field seem resistant, there are many unions in the
> US (let alone other countries) where the members are professional,
> creative, and autonomous, while enjoying advantages such as job security,
> high pay, and lack of workplace exploitation they gain from well reasoned,
> well written, and collectively negotiated contracts.  See, for example,
> the newspaper guild, the directors guild, and the various university
> faculty unions.
> 
> This is something I've been thinking about for a long time, though I've
> seen little organizational or political movement in this direction.  Given
> the current state of employment in the IT industry, perhaps now would be a
> good time to start.
> 
> Arthur Gaer
> gaer at math.harvard.edu
> 
> Senior Systems Manager, Department of Mathematics
> Harvard University, 617-495-1610, FAX: 617-495-5132
> 
> On Thu, 18 Jul 2002, rek2 wrote:
> 
> > What IT needs is a Union ;-)
> > I'm serious.
> > rek2
> >
> > On Thursday 18 July 2002 13:13, johnmalloy at attbi.com wrote:
> > > This is an issue that is affecting many hunfreds of
> > > thousands IT folks.
> > >
> > > However, unless we work together on this (with a single
> > > voice), we will never get even close to what we had 2
> > > yeasr ago.
> > >
> > > The user group community can play a role.
> > >
> > > One part of this huge dillemma is the H1-B visa issue.
> > >
> > > Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> >
> > ---
> > Send mail for the `bblisa' mailing list to `bblisa at bblisa.org'.
> > Mail administrative requests to `majordomo at bblisa.org'.
> >
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> Discuss at blu.org
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Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Associate Director
Boston Linux and Unix user group
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