It's a bit frightening to read the discussion here and see the only sensible opinion below downvoted. Because this really is a no brainer. Unions are a terrib

It's a bit frightening to read the discussion here and see the only sensible opinion below downvoted. Because this really is a no brainer. Unions are a terrible idea for skilled programmers. To be honest, it's all about money. Does anybody honestly believe that the Union Rate for skilled developers would be over $400k/year? That seems unlikely. Chances are it'll come in somewhere between $70k and $100k, exactly where it is today. Imagine we get a good bump though. 20%, 50%, even 100% and now we're up to $150k or even $200k. Where does that put us? At about half what a guy can negotiate for himself today if he's genuinely good at what he does. That leaves the question: why would a truly skilled programmer ever join a union? Anybody capable of basic arithmetic would give it a pass, leaving the "Skilled Developer Union" holding all the developers except the skilled ones. In practice, the union would be where you go to get average developers, and a Union Shop would be a place where you could expect to go work with average people doing average things. By definition, they wouldn't be able to hire non-union devs, since those guys won't join the club. And if you were in fact good, but in that union, there would be no way to get yourself that truly good (and achievable today without unions) bill rate except by leaving the union. I don't see any possible upside.