Nevyn (10/23/2013)
Apologies for wading into the "IT union" side discussion, but I have to agree that a union is not really an ideal fit in general for developers and DBAs.And its certainly not something I'd be tempted to do just to score some more vacation time.
I think I'd dislike the union dues, stress of collective bargaining, lack of accountability, and primacy of seniority relative to competence more than I'd like the extra vacation days. Not to mention the potential negative impact on company performance and adaptability.
Unions have their place. There are some jobs and industries where without them, employees could (and/or) have been squeezed to barely liveable conditions without them. But they are not a good fit everywhere, not a good solution to every "my pay/benefits suck" problem.
I am NOT a pro union person in any way, most people consider me anti-union.
My main issue with unions is that they don't adhere to what they should be doing, and frequently violate laws and get away with it. For example, it is against federal law for the teacher's union to engage in politics, but we all know they do and it is ignored.
That said, what I see as the value to unions is to ensure fair pay and benefits, and to ensure that workers are not abused, and that in cases where companies have no choice but to ask people to work more than they should, the employees are compensated fairly. Meaning an employee being paid $40 an hour, should be getting $60 an hour for any hours over 40 in a week, sometimes over 8 in a day.
The other side of the coin is that our profession should see a variety of wage levels due to the differences in intelligence, technical knowledge, and capabilities of workers. An entry level IT worker in any discipline could potentially be a star already. Frequently our most senior people in a number of disciplines are incapable of doing the most basic things. Fair pay means looking at productivity and quality. Unions are better suited to assembly line work where everyone produces the same quantity and quality - IT isn't like that.
Still, how many of us work for companies where everyone is paid the same, everyone gets the same bonus, everyone is looked at as being no better or worse than their co-workers? In my experience, companies have taken IT workers and forced them through the round hole that is "office workers" and view us the same way. Sure, some IT workers are idiots, some shouldn't be in the field, but a large number of IT workers (maybe everyone reading this?) excel at what we do and make an effort to produce the best quality work we can possibly produce.
So, unions or not? I don't know. I don't like them, but at this point I don't see them hurting a lot of IT workers in a lot of companies. I imagine there are some of you who would be hurt, and I would never want to force someone to join if they did not want to, but unions don't believe in options. My preference is to find a way to ensure we are compensated fairly, given appropriate time out of work to be ourselves, and to not be asked to work 60 hour weeks every week, without true vacation time, and not being paid for the hours we put in. All of that without the downside of unions. I have no idea how to make that happen. This is a brilliant group - someone will figure it out.
Dave