No. While we want to eliminate the need to switch jobs just to get a COLA, nothing about the contract would make job hopping harder. Under all CWA contracts co

No. While we want to eliminate the need to switch jobs just to get a COLA, nothing about the contract would make job hopping harder. Under all CWA contracts covering devs that I'm aware of, the employer gets to determine which grade a pay step the employee starts at when they are hired. Bargaining around your starting grade and step would be purely individual. In the future, I would personally like to see the union operate a hiring hall that allows developers to go through one standardized certification processes. If they pass, they would then be eligible for placement with unionized employers for a certain period of time (e.g. two years). For those devs/qa/designers/etc. who prefer jumping from project to project, the hall system would eliminate the hassle of interviewing constantly. For employers, they would effectively be outsourcing a large part of recruitment to the union. Developing such a certification process, and getting a critical mass of software workers and employers on board would be a huge lift, though. Some construction and merchant marine unions, back in the day, even had systems in place that allowed groups of coworkers to "ship out" as a group to employers when possible. I've hopped between jobs with groups of coworkers before, and it's great to arrive on a project and have rapport with your peers on day one.