[dalbasal]

I agree. This is a central question.

Is the ideal model of employment the "job-for-life," or not. If not, how many of a "traditional" union's norms still make sense?

Personally, im not really sure where I stand on tech unions. I suspect that certain things would be better if unions were more present. Work-life balance, unpaid overtime and always-available-on-email problems would probably be better. I suspect on-the job training would be better too. This is an area where our industry is insane. How is it even possible that tech companies do less training than wharehouses?

I was trained to drive a forklift for a part time summer job. 6 days paid training out of a total<60. 13 years in tech, and at best I've been offered "do a MOOC or something in your spare time."

OTOH, I don't think most of us want unions deciding who gets hired/fired/promoted, want seniority systems or a lot of traditional union stuff like that.

[kiliantics]

The traditional structure of unions is probably outdated in most or even all industries today but it certainly is inappropriate in tech. This doesn't mean worker organising is unnecessary, as you say. Fortunately, many people are already organising in non-traditional ways. Check out tech workers coalition:

https://techworkerscoalition.org/

[freewilly1040]

On training, in a warehouse you have be fully trained and competent to drive a forklift because your decisions are implemented in real time and you can hurt someone if you mess up. In software you can be given low risk problems to figure out, and your decisions and implementations are (ideally) reviewed before they go live.