BBLISA: Re: Overqualified?!?!

[Steve]

Arthur Gaer wrote:
 > 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.

If this agreement led to an intrinsically more productive group, then an 
argument could be made that what pays for all of these good things is 
the increase in efficiency. If, however, this is really just collusion, 
then this becomes a societal cost. If every worker in every industry 
decided that they deserved job security, higher pay, etc., and the only 
thing society got in return was that particular group's comfort, we'd 
all lose.

If the society decides that this is a good thing (e.g., U.S. probably 
doesn't think it's a good idea to be dependent on other countries for 
food), that's one thing. But that doesn't change the fundamental issue 
that somebody has to incur these costs if the organization doesn't 
increase productivity enough to offset it.

Unless the group that pays for this cost determines that this additional 
cost is tolerable, it will ultimately reject it regardless of the wishes 
of the organized constituency.

Steve