It is time that we unionise

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And unions won't help to provide *any* of that.

 

Ok, as a former Union rep, I have to ask exactly why the BCS has been mentioned in this thread. They are nothing to do with what actually goes on in the workplace with regards to the everyday welfare of the employee (ie with regards to working hours, wage negotiations, discipliniary disputes etc).


The role of the BCS (and other similar "professional organisations") is to promote excellence, education and research within their given field. And I have to say here that an excellent job of doing this they, and other organisations of their ilk, do.
Yes, join the BCS; employers look upon a membership of such organisations as a good thing as it shows them that you want to continue learning about new developments within the IT industry (in fact, some employers might even be willing to pay your membership, as it looks good for them to have employees who are members of such organisations on their payroll).


Unions, on the other hand, are a totally different kettle of fish.

They deal with the day to day things in work (ie with regards to working hours, wage negotiations, discipliniary disputes, pension funds etc). As such they tend to be umbrella organisations that cover the general industry that your employer would be in (eg, Unison for local government, RMT & TSSA for railway based industries, NUJ for journalists etc). Yes, there ARE still "single trade" unions (notably stuff like teaching and nursing), but they are generally in the minority.

Many employers will actually only recognise one, maybe 2, unions within their workforce structure; could you imagine the chaos that would ensue if every trade within a company had a representative at the annual wages negotiations??


To be honest, forget about setting up an IT based union, join the one at your place of work as they will have the experience and knowlege to help you (if needed).


mark

 

hey guys,

made me no1 in the google search engines wow!!!, a lot of advertisers would kill for that lol.

well, forget this debate its a waste of time, I have just finished reading my A+ certification books, took me a week but I have a 2nd reading to affirm my knowledge wicked.

I fear I have stirred up a hornets nest here. look lets concentrate on getting those all important qualifications and trying to work for a company.

So study hard and one day you will be fixing a computer or creating a network or be that voice on the other side of the phone. Hardware Rules!!!!

see ya later.

 

As someone who is very much anti-union, knows absolutely nothing about the BCS(as a Yank that means Bowl Championship Series from NCAA footall), I have to question what union around really looks out for their members. All unions I have seen look out for the union's interests first, last and always, and if that happens to coincide with their members best interests, well that's OK too.

I've been in shops that brought in union reps to talk in attempts to unionize the shop, and I have to say I've never met anyone more willing to sell snake-oil, used cars, bridges, whatever they could use to get their foot in the door than those union reps. I never met a one of them that actually made me feel as if he gave a rip about me, my family, or my career. They had an agenda, and my interests were not a part of that agenda. They were out to benefit the union, not me, or my co-workers. It was the union, and the unions power base they cared about.

Those guys would promise the moon, but when you tried to nail them down to solid, substantial facts, figures, etc... well, that was another story. After listening to, and questioning them, I'd have rather dealt with used car salesmen any day of the week.

Are all unions, and by extension all union people, crooked? I don't know. All I know comes from my experience, and my experience was not positive. But, after my experience I'd be loathe to trust any union. The setup is just too easy to corrupt, and unions are all about political power. That makes them be default very corruptible.

The unions that came into the places I've been offered what sounded like a big wage increase, until you started removing the deductions that they take out. In the end, we wouldn't have made any more money, we would have just had different masters, and would have had to walk out and go strike any time they said so. Sorry, I won't do that. I'll negotiate my own wage. I'll hire on, stay, or leave, at my decision, not someone else's. And, I'll be hanged if I'd job hunt the what is the "union way" here in the US. What's that? Go sit at the union hall and wait until somebody comes around to call for you if you're not working. Sorry, that's pure and total rubbish. And pay union dues while I'm not working? LOL. Not a chance.

In my estimation, unions suck, and they suck big time.

 

Just to add my voice to the debate about unions, I think they've outlived their usefulness. It used to be that the unions were a valuable way to add the voice of the worker to the negotiating table and to prevent abuses by management, but there are quite a number of labor laws on the books now that didn't exist then.

I used to work for the U.S. Postal Service. I was a temporary worker but saw how unionization affected worker performance. The really dedicated workers would perform up to near their capacity whilst the workers who were all union minded would perform only to the bare minimum required by their contracts. Unionization produces mediocre workers who care more about how many minutes they get for their lunch break than being good at their jobs. Unions are just another layer of management in the end that exists to feather the nests of the union officials.

In the state I live, the laws are such that joining the union is optional. The best workers shunned the union as a waste of money (union dues) that was not part of the value added piece of their employment.