Unions have a (mostly undeserved) terrible reputation. First, they're most often associated with strikes. A strike is a breakdown. No one wants a strike. If peo

Unions have a (mostly undeserved) terrible reputation. First, they're most often associated with strikes. A strike is a breakdown. No one wants a strike. If people associated them, instead, with a strong middle class, they'd have different opinions. Second, many unions are corrupt. That's a real problem, but most corporate management is far worse. Add to this the fact that there are a zillion clueless 20-year-old engineers in the Valley who think they're going to be VC-darling CEOs in five years, and cashed-out billionaires in ten, and you get a culture of clueless and foolish self-reliance. I don't want something as corrupt as the pilot's union, or as mediocrity-protecting as the teacher's union. I do think that programmers need some protection given the volatility of this economy, and the increasing importance of reputation (which requires having full-time professionals to manage it). To me, the biggest negative of a union is that it risks commoditization of labor. (But, for some hope, see: professional organizations and the unions for screen actors and writers.) However, since we're already being commoditized (JIRA, Scrum, closed allocation) we really have nothing to lose in most shops.