September 4, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Labor Day 2011
September 5, 2011 at 3:44 am
Interesting, that most of you are not part of a union. Does the union not offer any benefits?
I'm part of a union, but then I also live in Sweden where unions have a strong foothold. I however do my own salary discussions always, that's not why I'm part of a union. In Sweden, everyone has nearly completely free health care I'd say, despite this I get benefits from my union in health care, speed up the process to meet doctors and extra insurances at a good price since my union has engineers and civil-engineers and few of us are sick etc we get a good price.
This is not how it works in usa I take it?
September 5, 2011 at 9:56 am
The prevalence of unionization here the US depends on the industry. It's common in manufactoring, transportation, education. Also about 35% of government employees are members of a union. There are professional associations and guilds, not the same as a labor union, that offer health insurance and other services for members. However, here in the US most IT professionals are part of management (we get upper tier benefits without having to unionize), are independent contractors, or work for clients though a 3rd party consulting company that provides benefits. There never really has been a labor movement in the US info tech industry. Many of us may complain about long hours, but that's about it.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
September 5, 2011 at 9:58 am
In the United States, the National Labor Relations Board sets the rules for union membership. For example:
The majority ruled that workers should generally be deemed supervisors, exempt from union membership, if they oversaw another employee and could be held accountable if that subordinate performed poorly. The majority also ruled that workers could be deemed supervisors if they were assigned supervisory duties just 10 percent to 15 percent of their total work time.
The case focused on workers who did not perform functions like hiring, promoting or laying off workers, but rather assigning and directing other employees — functions in which the supervisory role was more ambiguous. The board’s majority emphasized that to be considered a supervisor, workers had to exercise independent judgment, although it adopted a more expansive view of such judgment than previous labor boards had.
From this you can see that a DBA who does exercise independnt judgment would be considered a supervisor and hence not eligible for union membership. In addition:
Professionally exempt work means work which is predominantly intellectual, requires specialized education, and involves the exercise of discretion and judgment. Professionally exempt workers must have education beyond high school, and usually beyond college, in fields that are distinguished from (more "academic" than) the mechanical arts or skilled trades
September 5, 2011 at 10:26 am
bitbucket-25253 (9/5/2011)
In the United States, the National Labor Relations Board sets the rules for union membership. For example:The majority ruled that workers should generally be deemed supervisors, exempt from union membership, if they oversaw another employee and could be held accountable if that subordinate performed poorly. The majority also ruled that workers could be deemed supervisors if they were assigned supervisory duties just 10 percent to 15 percent of their total work time.
The case focused on workers who did not perform functions like hiring, promoting or laying off workers, but rather assigning and directing other employees — functions in which the supervisory role was more ambiguous. The board’s majority emphasized that to be considered a supervisor, workers had to exercise independent judgment, although it adopted a more expansive view of such judgment than previous labor boards had.
From this you can see that a DBA who does exercise independnt judgment would be considered a supervisor and hence not eligible for union membership. In addition:
Professionally exempt work means work which is predominantly intellectual, requires specialized education, and involves the exercise of discretion and judgment. Professionally exempt workers must have education beyond high school, and usually beyond college, in fields that are distinguished from (more "academic" than) the mechanical arts or skilled trades
Interesting, if I understand that correctly, there are very few in usa that can join a union. Everyone with an education could be said not eligible to join a union.
September 5, 2011 at 1:43 pm
I'm not sure I agree that DBAs couldn't be part of a union. I wouldn't be surprised if we find a developer's or IT union at some point, though not necessarily all companies would become union shops.
We seem to be switching from the worker's domination to the companies' domination here in the US and I can see us swinging over more in the next decade. I suspect many of the people that cry out for a completely free market and for less government regulation might find that companies need some regulation or they will completely abuse workers as much as they can.
Not that unions in the US are perfect. They are far from being for worker's benefits as their primary purpose and seem to be geared more for anti-company practices, even when workers don't do a good job.
September 6, 2011 at 1:08 pm
I thought DBAs did "joins" and "unions" all day long. 🙂
September 7, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Good!
I just read Steve' post today, because I didn't take the laptop to the cottage this weekend. It was the most relaxing Labor Day holiday I've had in a couple of years.
September 7, 2011 at 6:57 pm
phegedusich (9/7/2011)
Good!I just read Steve' post today, because I didn't take the laptop to the cottage this weekend. It was the most relaxing Labor Day holiday I've had in a couple of years.
Glad you had a good holiday and didn't see any of this until you got back
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