5 ms·
many engineers were actively against - aghast, even - at the idea of unions “Union” is a trigger word but call it an association like BMA, BALPA, or a Federati
by goatinaboat 6y ago
many engineers were actively against - aghast, even - at the idea of unions
“Union” is a trigger word but call it an association like BMA, BALPA, or a Federation (Police) or even a guild, and everyone would be if not on board, at least willing to have a non-emotive conversation.
- kaibee 6y agoI have no doubt in my mind that most programmers would at least listen to the pitch if it was to join a guild.
- mcv 6y agoAnd yet guilds are traditionally vehicles for monopoly and control. All the things Americans complain about with regards to unions, are actually guild-like behaviour.
- C1sc0cat 6y agoAnd in labour organisations "guild" has some unfortunate racist conations in the USA.
- abj 6y agoSerious question - maybe the word "union" or "guild" is a branding problem? We could do some basic user research and come up with a more appealing name.(Think Universal Basic Income -> Freedom Dividend) I'd be more likely to join an organization called "Gathered Friends for Salary Negation And Fair Treatment".
- C1sc0cat 6y agoA lot of early US workers organisations where called guilds and one of the aims was excluding BAME (to use a modern term) workers. Also Guild does imply exclusion which is the medieval guild system which I think others have mentioned.
- amock 6y agoWhat racist connotations?
- Apocryphon 6y agoYes, but guilds are also the names of player-formed free associations in MMOs, which are what jumps to most software engineers' minds when they hear the word.
- notnap 6y agoThe good old game of term switcheroo, Americans like to play it a lot