I am slack-jawed. Wired has run a piece on unionizing the tech industry. I can see it now… Â
- mandated coffee breaks, lunches, and time and half at ship time.
- grievances over the size of your stock option award.
- the water cooler conversations… “Hey, Jimmy’s fixin’ too many bugs. He’s makin’ us all look bad.  Who wants to have a chat with him?”
Who would realistically want this?  Tech is the most vibrant, creative, inventive and fast moving sector of the economy, full of type-A personalities, and people (each and every one of them) who view what they’re doing as the next “moon shot”. Furthermore, it’s a mobile and fluid workforce. Why would you ever consider saddling this workforce with the baggage of a union?
Are unions even relevant anymore? The things they fought for are now mostly part of employment standards legislation. What do they stand for today?
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
"Tech is the most vibrant, creative, inventive and fast moving sector of the economy, full of type-A personalities, and people (each and every one of them) who view what they’re doing as the next “moon shotâ€. Furthermore, it’s a mobile and fluid workforce. Why would you ever consider saddling this workforce with the baggage of a union?"
I agree with you.
{ 1 trackback }