I can only speak for myself, but I think there is a naive idealist view of (modern, American) unions that gloss over the tradeoffs. I don't want another bureaucratic layer that tells me what to do, and run by yet more HR admin-types. We aren't working in the coal mines or steel mills here in the 1920s. Sorry I'm not interested in that for office jobs. I'm glad they still work in some countries and cultures.
I don't care what kind or style of job - if the balance of power in any labour relationship is overwhelmingly on the employer side, collective action is the only way labour can regain a modicum of negotiating power. To think that the style of job has any bearing on this relationship is naive.
The laws under which unions are organized have a huge influence on their effectiveness, and American unions are consequently... not that great.
The United Auto Workers partially funded the Port Huron Statement authored by Students for a Democratic Society, a generally socialist group. Now, it's entirely plausible that the UAW leadership wanted to have some modicum of influence, and that's why they loaned them an entire union retreat on Lake Huron. But I doubt that the average UAW factory worker was excited to see their union dues used to provide elite college students with a mostly-free vacation for political organizing.
I am not a labor law expert by any means, but my understanding of, say, German labor law is that it's much better at actually representing the workers in a given factory, in part because a union that doesn't do that loses its members to ones that will (since there's no requirement that everyone in a given job class has to join the same union).
The way it works in the movie industry is actors or writers can sign a contract with minimum union terms. Or, if they're a big name, their agent negotiates a contract on their behalf.
From time to time the union membership will want improvements or changes to the minimum terms. If they don't get these terms then the union - stars and everyone else - goes on strike.
These strikes are well publicized. I'm surprised you haven't heard of them.
You don't have to care. None of the parties involved care if you care or not. On the other hand, if you had an open mind about this topic, you'd see that strikes work based on this evidence.
I don't see the HR layer really existing in this alternative universe. Why would they? If they still existed it wouldn't be filled with lazy dim witted karens it would be lawyers with shark teeth.
> I don't want another bureaucratic layer that tells me what to do, and run by yet more HR admin-types.
That new bureaucratic layer would be designed to benefit you, and if it were to stop doing that and suddenly no longer served the interests of it's members you'd have the power to replace the leadership of that union or to leave it and start a new one. This is a huge improvement from the current bureaucratic layer of HR admin-types which you have zero say in how they operate and which is absolutely not looking out for your interests at all.
It's hard to understand the mindset of "I'd rather just be powerless in the job I have because that seems easier."
> It's hard to understand the mindset of "I'd rather just be powerless in the job I have because that seems easier."
Because that’s not the case? In America it is still extremely easy to find alternative lucrative work, or simply start your own business; because in software development the worker basically owns the means of production - himself. This is an extremely powerful bargaining position and it’s why SWE pays so well here.
Athletes, actors, doctors, and other professions still have to negotiate with centralized capital to some degree in a way SWE never will
How to loudly announce you've never been in a union.
I am an engineer in a unionized workplace. It's great. I make a ton of money, management is respectful, and work life balance is not based on the whims of whoever has a self-imposed emergency this week. My work is satisfying, and I have an avenue for resolving any complaints I might have with management.
Nobody tells me 'what I can't do' like some kind of anti-union cartoon that some people seem to think represents reality.
Unions aren't for coal miners. They are for anyone who cares about not being abused by the power imbalance inherent to the relationship between owners and laborers.
You are not a temporarily embarrassed billionaire. You have more in common with the steelworkers you seem to disdain so much than you do with them.
You're paid by writing code. The code is the company's capital, YOU are the company's labor. Unless you somehow expect to spend yourself at the grocery store, you've never been capital.
