[reaperducer]

they need something like a guild with membership fees and staff lawyers that would sue the state for allowing binding arbitration and non compete agreements

Serious question: How is this kind of a guild different from a union in your view?

[jedimastert]

Apparently guilds are for independent contractors and unions are for employees. A developer guild would be for freelance devs and the like

[reaperducer]

Ah. Thanks for the clarification. All I could piece together in my mind were the medieval guilds of Belgium. But I guess this isn't that far removed.

[Retric]

Screen actors guild is the most famous current example. While less well known they have made a significant difference in actor safety.

[cafard]

The Newspaper Guild (TNG, now part of the Communications Workers of America) represents a lot of journalists. But indeed most of us have heard the names of far more members of SAG-AFTRA than of TNG.

[vjktyu]

Afaik, a union can tell you what you can and cannot do, while I only want a team of well funded lawyers to change some laws. And the u word attracts unnecessary attention. Let's call it a club, actually.

[pjc50]

Professional organisations are middle class, while unions are working class.

(Per downthread, the dividing line is really "if your organisation comes into conflict with the state, does the fight happen in a courtroom or on the street?")

[ianleeclark]

> Professional organisations are middle class, while unions are working class.

I see a lot of hemming and hawing about "the middle class," but I don't think it has any real meaning. What defines the middle class and how is the working class excluded from it? Are you using "the middle class," as a substitute for a professional/managerial class?