Timeline for Are there any unions for software developers?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
11 events
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| Aug 12, 2014 at 23:33 | comment | added | FlavorScape | There are also other roles that might be more compared to nurses (who have a really strong union in the US). Assuming the developer makes the "product" and there is a team to facilitate that. For every developer there are quality assurance engineers, performance engineers, DBAs, deployment technicians etc. who often have to work long and hard hours. I've seen the QA team go well into the weekend to reproduce production issues. | |
| Aug 18, 2013 at 15:23 | comment | added | user7433 | If you're against pay based on years rather than skill, you should be against most corporations. Unions can be formed that don't work like that (there are many of them) and they can be formed so that they don't protect the weakest worker but protect every worker for hours, overtime, pay, vacations, etc. A union doesn't exist in a vacuum and a programmers union doesn't have to be like any existing union. | |
| May 18, 2013 at 9:14 | comment | added | Huperniketes | You are entirely incorrect in your assertion that there are no professional associations for doctors, lawyers and engineers. In the USA there is the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association and the IEEE. Architects, accountants, and even beauticians also have their "unions". In addition to the professional code of ethics David Thornley pointed out, they define standards of practice (methodologies), conduct studies and research for the field, and even lobby lawmakers for their professions. They also are prohibited from setting wages. | |
| Nov 10, 2011 at 19:23 | comment | added | han | Isn't it rather illogical that a newly established software developers' union would have those "rigid union rules" that all software developers hate? | |
| Feb 15, 2011 at 0:23 | comment | added | testerab | It is worth pointing out that in the UK for instance, the time you spend as a union member has NO effect on whether you get a role. The restrictions this answer discusses just aren't relevant to the way unions work here. | |
| Dec 23, 2010 at 18:03 | comment | added | David Thornley | The classic professional roles you name are licensed, which is actually rather similar to being unionized. A clinic can't lock out its doctors and bring in unlicensed replacement workers, and a license can involve enforcing a professional code of ethics which can be used in bargaining. | |
| Dec 23, 2010 at 15:48 | comment | added | Orbling | Well in the UK there are unions for engineers and software engineers, my father was a regional secretary for the AEU (Amalgamated Engineering Union) in the UK long ago and the union was quite active then. These days it is fully merged in to Unite, which I am a member of as software engineer. | |
| Dec 23, 2010 at 15:19 | comment | added | Zippit | Excellent explanation. I couldn't agree more. | |
| Oct 5, 2010 at 13:30 | comment | added | Todd Williamson | I have used the Simpsons many times over the years as an illustration for some point I was trying to make. I have trouble remembering something I read last week, but I have perfect recall of the first few seasons of the Simpsons. | |
| Oct 5, 2010 at 3:43 | comment | added | Dean Harding | Heh, reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons... "If only we'd listened to that boy, instead of walling him up in the abandoned coke oven." | |
| Oct 5, 2010 at 2:40 | history | answered | Todd Williamson | CC BY-SA 2.5 |