Can Unions Organize IT Pros?

If legislation to make it easier to organize workers into labor union becomes law next year,
how likely will information technology workers unite to join trade unions?

That’s a question posed in an article in the San Francisco Business Journal. The article quotes labor lawyer Garry Mathiason saying tech employees aren’t immune “merely because they are in technology or businesses where little union organizing has taken place.”

Big labor with the backing of many Democrats, including those in the incoming Obama administration, back passage of the Employee Free Choice Act that would make it harder for companies to battle unionization drives.

Though the bill was written to organize workers at companies like Walmart and not necessarily the information-tech industries, that doesn’t mean attempts to organize high-tech workers in Silicon Valley—where joblessness has jumped 2 points to 6.9% in just a year—won’t take place. Says labor lawyer Mark Ross, in the business journal:

“Times are changing. We’re in a troubled economy. People may be looking for other ways of protecting themselves and insuring that they are compensated appropriately.”

But would core beliefs of Silicon Valley technology workers get them to join a union. Here’s what Jan English-Lueck, a San Jose State University professor who studies the culture of the region, told the journal:

“There is a strong narrative of individuals in garages being successful, and that vision is not something that lends itself to organizing. Unions undermine the idea that I can do anything. You have a couple of really big cultural reasons against organization.”

Yet, the founder of the professional group Programmers Guild John Miano sees it differently:

“A forward-thinking union could set up a web site to create a non-stop certification drive at an unlimited number of Silicon Valley companies. This bill has the potential for having a major impact upon Silicon Valley and technology fields.”