Programmers in the US Postal Service have union representation. This union also represents accountants. Members have the option to join the union or not join the union. Either way, the union negotiates wages/benefits for programmers and accountants.<p>I understand the benefit for unions that represent lower skilled workers and skill tradesmen. However, it seems absurd there is a union that represents programmers or accountants.<p>We can discuss the problems in the news section if there's interest.<p>But for now does anyone else know of other unions in IT?
Back in 2000/2001 I worked for an Irish broadcaster on their online presence. The company was heavily unionised. Because they weren't sure which union us techies should be in, the local chapter of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) decide that we belonged under them.<p>Their reasoning was that they had technical print workers part and the Internet was a form of electric printing. Few of us joined.<p>And when a inevitable round of lay-offs came the union members got better severance packages. In a heavily unionised environment it's definitely worth the membership dues.<p>If you think it's absurd for a programmers union what do you think of an employer's union? <a href="http://www.ibec.ie/" rel="nofollow">http://www.ibec.ie/</a> has always been called, and behaved as, the employers union despite dropping union from their name in 1990.
I had a friend who was a programmer in Italy, where he was part of the machinists' union or something. In the US there's a Programmer's Guild but they're probably more of a PAC (Political Action Group) than a union.
when i worked at cerro tololo inter-american observatories (la serena, chile). there was a union and i was a member. seemed to work fine - they were smart people, did good work, and the wages were higher than average. nothing absurd about it.