IT Unionization

Kevin Robert Dean qualiall_2 at yahoo.com
Thu May 10 07:22:56 PDT 2001


Labor -- and action -- in technology IT guild: A once and future union?

http://www.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/05/09/itworkers.union.idg/index.html

May 9, 2001 Web posted at: 10:49 a.m. EDT (1449 GMT)

by Meridith Levinson

(IDG) -- In the 1930s, muscle-bound steel workers served as poster boys for the AFL-CIO -- the American Federation of Labor, then a rising power as the country's umbrella union organization.

Workers were in the driver's seat of the American economy, they called the shots. Today, it's the often less-than-strapping IT worker who has slipped behind the wheel. Can brainy software engineers replace brawny men of yore as spokesmodels for labor unions and exploited workers in the new economy? The answer is yes. And no.

In a poll taken in February by TechRepublic.com, a Web site for IT professionals, 45 percent of responding IT workers said they're interested in joining a labor union for high-tech employees.

Others have more than a passing interest. They're joining existing unions. One of them is the 740,000-member Communications Workers of America (CWA), based in Washington, and the 75,000-member International Federation for Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE), with offices in Silver Spring, Maryland.

And some are forming their own unions, among them the 250-member Seattle-based Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech). That one has organized programmers at Microsoft and helped bring to resolution a lawsuit against the company involving alleged misclassification of long-term contract workers as temps.

Surprised by all this interest in unions? You're not alone.

Full Story here: http://www.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/05/09/itworkers.union.idg/index.html

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