#TechIndustry #AntiUnionSentiments #TechJobs #Unionization #TechLayoffs
Have you ever wondered why the tech industry in general has strong anti-union sentiments? 🤔 Despite the growing concerns about job security and working conditions in the tech industry, the idea of unionizing tech workers is often met with resistance from both employers and employees. In this article, we’ll dive into the reasons behind the anti-union sentiments in the tech industry and explore the implications of this phenomenon.
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## Understanding the Tech Industry’s Anti-Union Sentiments
### 1. Culture of Innovation and Individualism
– The tech industry has long been associated with a culture of innovation and individualism. Tech companies often promote the idea of a “meritocracy,” where individuals are rewarded based on their skills and contributions.
– Many tech workers believe that unionization could hinder their ability to negotiate their own terms and compensation, as it may introduce rigid collective bargaining agreements that do not account for individual performance.
### 2. Perks and Benefits
– Tech companies are known for offering generous perks and benefits to their employees, including competitive salaries, stock options, and flexible work arrangements.
– Some tech workers may feel that unionization is unnecessary, as they are already receiving favorable treatment from their employers.
### 3. Fear of Retaliation
– The tech industry is highly competitive, and some workers fear that advocating for unionization may result in retaliation from their employers.
– Tech companies have been known to discourage unionization efforts by implementing anti-union policies and tactics, further fueling the anti-union sentiments among tech workers.
## Implications of Anti-Union Sentiments in the Tech Industry
### 1. Job Insecurity
– Despite the common perception of tech jobs as being secure, layoffs and job instability have become more prevalent in the industry. The ongoing wave of tech layoffs has prompted some workers to reconsider the benefits of union representation.
### 2. Working Conditions
– The tech industry’s fast-paced and demanding nature can lead to burnout and high levels of stress among employees. Unionization could provide tech workers with a platform to address issues related to working conditions and job stress.
### 3. Wage Disparities
– While many tech workers receive substantial compensation, there are wage disparities within the industry. Unionization could help address these disparities and ensure fair wages for all tech workers.
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In conclusion, the tech industry’s strong anti-union sentiments are deeply rooted in its culture, benefits, and fear of retaliation. However, as the industry grapples with job insecurity, working conditions, and wage disparities, the need for union representation may become increasingly important. By understanding the reasons behind the anti-union sentiments in the tech industry, we can better navigate the complexities of labor relations and work towards fair and equitable treatment for all tech workers.
By addressing these concerns, tech workers can find a collective voice to advocate for their rights and ensure a more secure and supportive work environment in the ever-evolving tech industry. As the landscape of tech continues to shift, the conversation around unionization in the industry is likely to evolve as well. It’s important to stay informed and engaged in these discussions to pave the way for a more equitable and sustainable future for tech workers.
#TechUnionization #TechJobSecurity #TechIndustryInsights #UnionizationBenefits
short answer is I think most people feel the cons > the pros
but also the biggest thing I’ve seen is, what are you seeking to get out from unionization
because unionization will **NOT** save you from layoffs if that’s what you’re going after
little incentive to? why unionize when you can job hop if your job sucks, get huge up front stock grants ?
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unions return bargining power back to the workers – we’ve had a decade long bull run in tech where workers were heavily in demand. i don’t expect the long term trends to die down soon, we’re seeing a bit of a harsh response thanks to the fed hugely hiking interest rates but long term its unlikely we will see truly ‘higher for longer’
Most tech jobs already offer everything that a union would offer and we don’t really work in a hazardous environment, so there’s nothing that a union could offer more of us. Most of us get great benefits and high pay.Â
In the case of layoffs, the most a union can do is make sure that those who are let go get a sufficient severance package, which most tech companies already offer. Â
Also, it’d be very hard to get all tech workers under a single umbrella of a union. The type of work we do varies wildly and spans literally every industry. Getting one set of rules that fit everyone’s needs and particular concerns would be damn near impossible.Â
What exactly do you think talented senior engineers would gain from a union? Be specific.
My father has been a union member in the same job for twenty years. He hasn’t gotten a raise in those 20 years – only an annual “cost of living” adjustment. His benefits are average for what most F500 companies offer these days. No bonuses, no equity.
What benefit does the union bring? They just suck up their annual dues for… stuff?
Not to sound like an ass, but for me it’s because I’m confident in my abilities and can make more money without a union.
It has not needed unions (yet).
They’ve convinced themselves that tech is the ultimate meritocracy
Quick point: what about game development specifically? Less pay than normal SWE and lots of crunch time. Wouldn’t it benefit them to have some form of union, especially when it comes to crunch?
The main reason for me: I’m afraid that unionizing will lower salaries over the long term. I believe this because other countries with strong unions, like Sweden have much lower pay than in the US.
I am confident in my ability to out-compete other workers and feel that the ability to job hob or quit gives me more bargaining power than a union would, even in a bad economy. I have five years worth of living expenses saved up and that gives me lots of flexibility.
I fear that an American union would benefit American workers at the expense of workers from other countries, which I feel is nativist.
I would be OK with a union that fights for things I want, like increased PTO and guaranteed remote work, but worry that it will fight for things I don’t want, like trying to prevent layoffs or stop AI from replacing workers. I don’t support anything that undermines the free market, slows the advance of technology or protects underperforming people.
Ultimately, I care more about technological progress than I do about my own job security. If I knew that unionization would double my salary but also delay AGI by 5 years because of increased development costs, I would oppose it because the tech is that important to me.
Not sure, this is something I have thought about as well. There’s a union for medical doctors, NFL players, and research scientists, but it seems like most people in the tech industry are anti-union.
i literally have 2 jobs each paying six figures
Because the venn diagrams don’t overlap. The people that want freebie benefits don’t want to put extra work running union meetings after work hours, and the people that are willing to work hard and play office politics will just focus their effort towards increasing their own compensation
i’ve noticed this weird disconnect with americans specifically where there is this general sentiment that ‘as long as i am fine’ then things aren’t worth fixing/critiquing. im not entirely sure why this is, but id guess that dev’s by in large are getting paid well enough to say ‘well, who cares? its not my problem’ which is unfortunate, because thats the antithesis to what role unions play in our lives collectively as a society. (also, just tons of misconceptions about how unions work.)
>Why does the tech industry **in the US** in general have strong anti-union sentiments?
The salaries are too different, and the guys above will never accept to lower their salaries. And there is a not insignificant number of developers that do much more work than the average developer, it would be unfair for them too.
It’s the case for most white-collar jobs I’d say.
Also, a lot of manufacturing jobs are unionized. And that did nothing to save their jobs over the last few decades. It’s hard to see the benefit to unions nowadays.
I think the problem is that not all tech workers are the same. They’re not all doing similar work in large amounts in a big company.
When you look at the UAW, these are people that are working in large numbers in factories manually building automobiles. There’s a lot of equality and therefore it’s better for them to unite and bargain as a group for things as opposed to fighting and competing with each other for a better paycheck or a slightly bigger seniority.
With the writers in Hollywood, there again doing similar work in large numbers for these big studios. Again, it’s better for them to unite.
Now with tech workers, you have software engineers, IT people, UX, project managers, analysts, data people, etc. So many different roles that have different levels of monetary value when you look at salary and compensation.
Then you also throw in there skill sets, knowledge, and experience. A rookie auto worker may not work as fast and as perfect as the 10-year experienced auto worker, but he or she still has a select amount of skill and work ethic similar to 10-year veteran.
So a recent boot camp graduate is still very green, inexperienced, doesn’t have all the skills they need to be fully working, and you compare that to someone who’s been doing things for 10 years, keeps up with things, and can easily jump into a company set up a stack and go right to it. Why should the more experienced worker give a damn about the rookie worker?
I tend to notice that a lot of successful tech workers lean a bit more libertarian, which isn’t going to play well eith regards to trying to think in terms of solidarity. They are more likely going to believe that the person that got laid off was either unlucky or not good enough to have a job.
It’s hard to get people like that to think in terms of unity when some are not having that much trouble finding work and feel that they don’t need others or union to protect them.
If anything, all the people out there that are not being able to find work, struggling, trying hard but can’t get anywhere, or easily expendable, they need to start thinking less about labor unionization and maybe more about fighting back in the ballot box. Do something to take the power away from wall street so workers do not become as expendable and things aren’t measured by shareholder value so much.
Pipe dream I know, but that to me is the issue.
Because unions in general need two pre existing conditions to do well, that employers have high profit margins and that the job industry is inelastic. The former you can argue with faang companies but the tech industry is way more elastic than industries that are known for unions like teachers, police officers, writers or the airline industry.
Why? Because we get paid 10x the median income of the rest of America and most of our colleagues are muppets who would want to start a labor strike over tabs vs. spaces.
Unions exist because Capital ultimately fails to meet the needs of workers. When Capital manages to proletarianize tech workers, as is inevitable, they will push to form unions to defend the assault on their standard of living and working conditions. The struggle against Capital is what creates trade-union consciousness.
I am a left leaning person, and even I recognize that unions are not the answer.
I worked in various roles before tech (during high school and college), but in my experience, unions are just as corrupt and conniving against workers
In addition, even though tech is toxic, it is worth the pay.
It went back to bill gates and the Steve jobs. When they were starting up, they would fire people for being sick, pregnant. And they set the tone for the tech wave after them. Game studios and Silicon Valley, hire on FOMO. They don’t care about burnout because there are people still lining up. And will work for cheaper. If they unionized, they would have to start treating employees like humans. Instead of replaceable matchsticks.
I’ve met plenty of devs I’d want no association with, certainly not if it became relevant to my employment status or rights. I wouldn’t want to be forced into striking in solidarity with them.
Because tech work is not a commodity and developers don’t get royalties and most of the jobs are not short term gigs.
You either have unions in industries in which labor is a commodity (like manufacturing, education, public administration, certain kind of services such as Starbucks) meaning one worker is doing about the same output in the unit of time as another worker in the same position so pay can be negotiated collectively.
Or you have unions for artists, in which they negotiate not how much they have to get paid, but their rights in their contract: e.g. the rights to royalty, the rights to refuse some kind of work (e.g. dangerous work). It has a built-in assumption that the best artist will make a lot more money than the bulk of them (which will make no money), so it does not try to negotiate hourly pay (I am talking historically, they tried to do that in 2023 and they failed).
Also those provide health insurance for their members, which a lot of them have short term gigs so they can’t really get health insurance through their employer. The biggest issue of that kind of health insurance is the group plan, that’s negotiated with the insurance company collectively. You see how important is the group plan when you go on COBRA: you definitely want to stay on COBRA vs go shop for your own insurance plan if your former employer is quite large (so it has negotiating power due to size of the contract) – the bang-for-the-buck difference is ridiculous. Especially if the group composition is advantageous (young people with office jobs don’t tend to rack up major health expenses so the insurance company will give good rates).
Since software engineers are not uniform (the 10x applies within a company; across the whole industry is more like 1000x – if you challenge that, think about how you compare yourself against Linus Torvalds if you happen to have similar YOE), work is not a commodity. Also engineers don’t get residuals from their work; no one receives royalties, not even if the company puts you as an author on a company’s patent. You write code, you get paid, you go home, tomorrow you do the same. And while some that work in short-term contract gigs could benefit from a “guild” that gives them health insurance, that’s a very small minority of the tech workforce.
The last reason: because unions don’t protect you from layoffs.
A union would benefit the industry as a whole, especially if it were created sort of like the writers guild. The Writers Guild has quality and staffing requirements. Things like requiring some form of staff writer (an architect), editors (a QA process), and a writer’s room (a staffed development team with reasonable minimum timelines). Many of the benefits of a union go way beyond monetary benefits; they can increase stability, work quality, and safety. I would join a union in a heartbeat. I think the whole software and IT industry should unionize.
I’m pretty entrenched in the industry, and I don’t find it particularly anti-union.
If anything, I’ve learned more about neoliberalism from people I’ve met in tech and other founders than I have from people outside the tech industry. There’s a definite pro-business, pro-institution bend in my circles, but it’s not to the point where it starts to become bad for society, either through harming individuals or some negative externalities. It’s mostly just a collection of really thoughtful people. If unions made sense, my share of friends and contacts would be supportive, but no one has every seriously tried to unionize on a national level in a movement that reaches the dialog.
Usually, national unions consist of many local unions banding together, but that’s hard to do when we generally have good working conditions. I’m not saying there wouldn’t be benefits of unionization, imagine the the bargaining power of a software engineer strike, we could literally shut the world down, but software is enough of a merit based system with enough job market liquidity that you are largely shielded from bad company practices by just getting another job.
I’m not trying to say we are some ideal meritocracy, but upward trajectory is always within your potential. Our labour results in work that has incredible economic leverage, so as long as this is the case the incentives will be to pay us pretty well and let us work in good conditions.
This is largely an American thing too. Americans are anti union thanks to decades of propaganda.
People who think they are smart tend not to second guess themselves no matter how stupid they are.
One point that’s tangentially related that I just thought of that doesn’t get addressed often: a tech workers union—or rather an IT/Ops/SRE union—would probably be *extremely* powerful. If a strike were to occur and an internal server outage happened, most tech companies’ cash flows in the affected areas would be dead in the water instantly, and the customers/end users would be *pissed* hopefully primarily at the company.
Obviously there are issues too, like how tech companies are some of the most profitable companies on the planet and therefore the most powerful, or maybe it would be easier to scab a tech strike using remote worker scabs, but what do you guys think with regards to the influence a tech union could hold or the ways in which it could exercise its power?
Just a guess, but there’s a huge gap between the lowest performing and highest performing engineers. An engineer that writes bad code can actually be a legitimate liability to the team. Also, there’s a huge salary gap between the highest and lowest paid engineers. It’s going to be more challenging to form a union if everyone is not upfront about total comp as well.
As I get older, I less believe in meritocracy, and I’m glad we have union jobs in the economy, but not sure the right way to approach it in tech.
Did you know the Google union wants 10% of a member’s gross income, including stock, per year as dues? That would be 30k-50k per year for a engineer of after tax money, so it would cost 50k+, and for what? A 5% lower chance of being laid off?
Owners in every industry try to keep out unions because unions try to keep employees from being totally screwed by owners.
A lot is just the fact people grow up with media constantly telling them that and grassroots organising is communism and therefore bad.
If someone is highly educated, it’s likely they come from a well-to-do family and had a reasonably smooth ride in life and now they’re in a well paid and respected job.
There’s not been anything in their experience to show them what unions are for and why they’re often a good idea even in cushy jobs.
**note** (in bold just in case people don’t read the post all the way down) there are many, many exceptions to this! Programming is one place where upward mobility is still possible and merit is still somewhat rewarded for it’s own sake. I myself am in the category that had an easy ride at life, and consequently my parents were very suspicious and even antagonistic to unions, but life dealt me a few blows in my adult years and I also educated myself a fair bit. My situation requires a pretty egalitarian society with at the very least socialised healthcare or my family will be completely screwed and as a consequence I’ll not be able to work as I would be full time carer. Those things make you appreciate that little bit of socialism that creeps into most sane societies.
Because everyone is extremely individualistic in the US. There are unions for tech workers in the nordics and it works pretty well for them.
What you get is a narrower pay range, but you get increased job security, more parental leave and much more defined expectations for working hours.
Collective bargaining also does force the employers hand to not have so many boom and bust hiring like there has been recently.