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I can understand the general philosophic argument for ‘worker’ solidarity, but in practice that is not how unions work. Union represent professions and then tho
by throwaway17_17 7y ago
I can understand the general philosophic argument for ‘worker’ solidarity, but in practice that is not how unions work. Union represent professions and then those unions often pool resource under a larger labor umbrella. It is why the the Screen Actors Guild is separate from Cinamatographer Guild, Screenwriters Guild, production laborers union, etc in the motion picture industry. Further it’s why plumbers, carpenters, electricians, etc have separate unions in the construction field. If software engineers feel they need the leverage of organized labor that is a decision these developers can make and then act on, but that is very different than suborning the needs a very particular profession to the needs and desires of complete separate groups.
As a note, the solidarity in these situations tend to come as reciprocal strike agreements, i.e. the SAG not working during the Screenwriters Guild strike in the last decade (I think it was post 2010 anyway)
- meheleventyone 7y agoHow broad the accepted membership is entirely depends on the union. There is no objective reason to always segment by profession. In my opinion having worked in the games industry for over fifteen years software engineers are treated very similarly to other disciplines although paid better and it would make a lot more sense to work together with other disciplines than trying to each form a union separately. As you say unions often have reciprocal agreements or are even part of larger umbrella organizations for example the TUC in the UK.