We can form a union when we need to form a union. There's no point in forming one just in case software engineering no longer becomes a sought-after skilled job.
There's plenty of stuff that software engineers could want to improve today around oncall, long hours, IP restrictions, non-competes, pay transparency, parental leave, equity, promotion and career management, educational benefits, age/gender/racial/etc discrimination, health care, etc.
When we're in a position of power is a great time for us to form a union and start tackling some of the second tier of issues (like non-competes). If not now, when?
Non-competes are unenforceable in California.
Do you actually think that writing software is going to be come an unskilled job some day?
This presupposes that you'll have a list of companies to join that have all the benefits that you want.
> Non-competes are unenforceable in California.
Great. Tech work happens nationwide. You could say, "I got mine in California" or you could help pull up others. I believe that it's worthwhile, sometimes, for me to spend some of my income to help others reach a better station.
> Do you actually think that writing software is going to be come an unskilled job some day?
Do you not? Also, there are plenty of workers in tech who aren't software developers. We should be helping them get benefits as well.
Does anyone, anywhere, have a list of companies that checks literally all their boxes?
> I believe that it's worthwhile, sometimes, for me to spend some of my income to help others reach a better station.
Again, I don't think that software engineering is in a position that needs unionizing. This argument is nil to me. You're asking me to spend my income for something I don't see as a net gain.
> Do you not? Also, there are plenty of workers in tech who aren't software developers. We should be helping them get benefits as well.
You've suddenly moved the goalposts to be about something other than software engineers, which is not what we were talking about. If another profession wants to go unionize, more power to them. I don't see my profession as benefiting, hence I'm arguing against it.
Ok, that's fine. Depending on your reasoning a bit myopic/solipsistic/sociopathic, perhaps, but I recognize this is a widely held position that I happen to disagree with.
> You've suddenly moved the goalposts to be about something other than software engineers, which is not what we were talking about.
You are right, you said software engineers. But the article discusses tech workers.
There's a whole universe of sys-admins, SREs, technical writers, TPMs, QA folks, programmer analysts, devops folks, etc. who are essential to writing and shipping systems at scale who don't call themselves "software engineers".
Even if you don't think it's morally right to do so, isn't it in your self interest to ensure those people are as productive, well trained, and happy as possible so less of their work lands on your plate?
Less than $100 a month to have an organization fight open floor plans and to provide legal services on your behalf for when HR fails you seems like a small price to pay.
> I don't see my profession as benefiting
Say you're working in the game industry, and management keeps on slashing the QA org. Enjoy the additional stress of having to write all of the automation tests yourself on top of fiendish deadlines when you're already working 50 hour weeks with unpaid overtime.
Sometimes management sure loves to treat it that way:
See also: Minimum product security standards and product excellence.
In my 35 years of life, it has become harder to start a union, so it isn't out of the question that it becomes harder and harder to start a union when software engineers "need to". There's no guarantee that what exists today will exist tomorrow.
Do people actually think that software engineering is going to become a job that isn't skilled, and isn't sought after?
I'm not sure why you would be so sure it wouldn't. Are the software engineers of today truly that different from the machinists of yesterday?
If you believe in the free market, then it is elementary that more people will flood into these careers which will lower the wages and diminish the bargaining power of existing software engineers.
Software is hard, humans have a hard time doing hard things, that's why we get paid more.
These are actually two perfect examples to illustrate my point. Both industries are represented by organizations that systematically make it harder for more people to enter the profession (AMA for medicine and Bar Association for legal). They have eschewed the free market in favor of regulatory capture in order to maintain their market advantage.
==Software is hard, humans have a hard time doing hard things, that's why we get paid more.==
Same could have been said of building cars and planes 50 years ago.
...and automotive and aerospace engineers are still paid quite well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Professional_Engine...