[geeks] Ping...

[David Cantrell]

On Wed, Oct 30, 2002 at 04:17:25AM -0800, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> --- David Cantrell <david at cantrell.org.uk> wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 29, 2002 at 06:37:49PM -0800, Lionel Peterson wrote:
> > Lots of stuff.  Legal advice when $employer fucks you over.  The
> > possibility of collective bargaining (which can get you a *lot*
> > more than individual bargaining can, when used at the right time).
> > And so on.
> Well, the point was the original poster wanted to also heavily tax
> high-income earners, so whay would I want to make more - so I could pay
> ever higher taxes? ;^)

Unless the tax rate is 100% then you benefit from having a higher salary.
And I wouldn't want to bargain collectively for salary anyway, but for
other things like changes to basic terms and conditions, working practices,
company-wide benefits etc they're dead handy.

> > Just because you've got an education and see yourself as being a
> > professional doesn't mean that your employers will treat you with
> > the respect you deserve.
> No, I earn the respect of my employer for the unique work I do for
> them

Then you're lucky that your employer isn't one of the drooling morons
that many of us have suffered.

>      the real service the unions offer for (what we in the US refer to
> as) blue collar workers is that the worker gets treated better than
> their otherwise would, since the work they do is a commodity...

In the current market, programmers and sysadmins are a commodity.  Even
good ones.

> I value what unions offer others, but just don't see how it applies to
> me. I have a friend that was a state employee in PA - he was in the
> union (becuase he had to be), but the union barred him from voting,
> since he was "management". It was very hard for him to see what the
> union did for his tithe to them.

Then a) the employer is broken (union membership should NEVER be 
compulsory) and b) that particular union is broken, for denying him his
rights as a member - and in fact for admitting him as a member knowing
that they would do so.

-- 
Grand Inquisitor Reverend David Cantrell | http://www.cantrell.org.uk/david

      We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity
      has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.
                                                -- Richard Dawkins