My leverage is getting a different job. If that's not enough to get what I want, that's too bad for me: looks like it's in everyone's interest for me to leave -

My leverage is getting a different job. If that's not enough to get what I want, that's too bad for me: looks like it's in everyone's interest for me to leave -- I get to go to a company that's better suited to my interest, and my company gets to hire someone that's better suited to their interests. If my company is as bad as I think it is, then all of the good SWEs will leave and they'll go out of business. If it doesn't go out of business, then it looks like I was wrong about how bad it is. I also shudder to think of the painful position it would put the R&D team in if they had to bargain with a union every time they got a new transfer that doesn't work out: someone escalates to a manager and it gets communicated to the transfer as "hey buddy, we think it might be better if you spend some time working on ads" for the sake of saving everyone's feelings. Next thing you know, what should have been a polite reshuffling is a negotiation with a union rep...