[matt4077]

Anything you like, basically.

Without a a union there's a power imbalance between employer and employee. People say it's all based on mutually agreed contracts. In reality, you are probably much more dependent on your job than the company is on you. That's because they may lose something like 1/1000 of their employees when they fire you, but you lose 100% of your jobs[1].

Unions are a way correct this balance. Employees band together, so that failure to reach an agreement is as painful for the employer as it is for the employee, i. e. (in the worst case) work stops and nobody gets paid.

[1]: If you doubt me, try getting Google to come in for 6 interviews and make your future manager do a whiteboard exam.

[stale2002]

Sure, band together and fix the power balance on your own, but don't force me to join one.

I am perfectly OK with "fighting" the power imbalance on my own, using a skill called "negotiating my salary" and "voting with my feet".

[alphonsegaston]

Neither of those things are forbidden by unions. Actors are unionized and negotiate their salaries. And of course you're always free to quit.

[chimeracoder]

> Neither of those things are forbidden by unions.

They can be - and most unions do prohibit negotiation with employers. SAG-AFTRA is the exception, not the rule, due mostly to the temporary, part-time, and gig-based nature of their work.

[alphonsegaston]

Sure - but we're talking about a new union for tech workers here. It can be what we want it to be. There's no reason to lock ourselves into some kind of historical determinancy. SAG-AFRTA never did.

[chimeracoder]

> Sure - but we're talking about a new union for tech workers here. It can be what we want it to be. There's no reason to lock ourselves into some kind of historical determinancy. SAG-AFRTA never did.

There is, and that's the NLRA. It's a very rigid law, and there's a reason that basically all unions formed under the NLRA, regardless of the industry, have converged on the same sorts of membership agreements, employer contracts, and corporate policies.

You can start off with whatever you like, but pretty much any NLRA-regulated union will end up with the same result; it's not a coincidence.

[spangry]

Not to mention the fact that software developers will eventually find themselves in exceptionally weak bargaining positions, at least as individuals. Almost uniquely so.

It's great that remote working is possible in software dev, but the flipside is that it's much easier to outsource your job to another country. And working on cutting edge stuff like ML sounds interesting. But it also means you may one day find yourself building the surplus capital that will ultimately replace you. You refuse to do that? Cool, you're fired. Maybe the guy sitting in the cubicle next to you will.

[Dramatization. May not happen.]

[poikniok]

Well not exactly, you get what other people like, which is generally not what I myself like.