Has the time come for IT to Unionize?

[Steve]

Can you imagine the scabs that would be brought in when there's a strike?

 

[nakedfrog]

If I got an extra $33 per day when I was on call, I'd get an extra $231 per month. That'd be nice. I do get a partial reimbursement for my cell phone, at least, but it's less than $33.

 

[Rage187]

absolutely not, how the hell would we be able to get rid of useless people?

 

[StageLeft]

No, get a new job with more pay

 

[m1ldslide1]

IT is unionized where I work and it has its pros and cons. The compensation for being on call is damn good, like 3 hours of automatic OT when you take a call and time+1/2 for any actual time you spend working on the issue. This system allowed one of our techs to double his salary and buy a brand new BMW last year. That's great for him, but not for the organization.

The drawback is that *my* position classification doesn't have "on-call" written into it, so I don't get those benefits. This is a mistake though, because I'm network admin and end up getting called anyway. I get time+1/2 for any time I spend working on the issue, which isn't as good, but I don't have to answer the phone if I don't want to and can't get in trouble for it. However I'd be screwing over whichever poor soul is trying to call me and get help on something they can't fix. I like the people I work with and don't want to do that to them, so I always answer the call. Well, sometimes I let it go to voicemail first. But you get the idea.

Also what somebody said about nobody ever getting fired is true, but that was the case where I'm at long before the union came into effect. We have some seriously apathetic and lazy people.

Pros + Cons

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: piasabird


This should encourage you to fix you problems so the system works better. If it a faulty program, then make the programmer be woke up to come in and fix it. If it is the network it is probably your fault for not setting it up correctly. If you make the big bucks then it is your problem. So fix it so you dont get called. If your system worked you would not get called at all.

this is exactly what i was thinking. when i get called to fix a system, its my fault anyway. and i dont get paid extra for going and fixing it. unless i an prove it was something a customer did, then i not only get paid hourly but i get paid OT hourly. pretty good bank for a salary guy. i had one emergency trip on a sunday to lake havasu that got me an extra $950 just for that one sunday trip. took me 2 hours to fix the problem, the rest of the day i spent with my kids at the lake. pretty cool.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
Screw unions.

 

[Skacer]

Originally posted by: m1ldslide1
IT is unionized where I work and it has its pros and cons. The compensation for being on call is damn good, like 3 hours of automatic OT when you take a call and time+1/2 for any actual time you spend working on the issue. This system allowed one of our techs to double his salary and buy a brand new BMW last year. That's great for him, but not for the organization.

The drawback is that *my* position classification doesn't have "on-call" written into it, so I don't get those benefits. This is a mistake though, because I'm network admin and end up getting called anyway. I get time+1/2 for any time I spend working on the issue, which isn't as good, but I don't have to answer the phone if I don't want to and can't get in trouble for it. However I'd be screwing over whichever poor soul is trying to call me and get help on something they can't fix. I like the people I work with and don't want to do that to them, so I always answer the call. Well, sometimes I let it go to voicemail first. But you get the idea.

Also what somebody said about nobody ever getting fired is true, but that was the case where I'm at long before the union came into effect. We have some seriously apathetic and lazy people.

Pros + Cons

You get time and a half. That is already a bonus. I work an oncall position with absolutely no time and a half and the salary isn't even note worthy. Guess perspective is everything.

 

[daveshel]

I agree that there's a problem. I am severely exploited on the salary thing - one time I worked 140 hours in a 12-day period. I don't get comp time or any additional compensation for being on call. It's a sweat shop gig.

But I don't think unions can help. There was a time when unions were necessary and important, but any more they are just vampires. I believe the solution would be to remove the 'professional exemption' from the wage hour law. I am classified as a professional so I'm exempt from the overtime laws, but I don't have the pay or the degree of autonomy that characterize a professional.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Find a new job? If you are getting up constantly in the middle of the night to fix things you aren't working for a very efficient company.

 

[Parasitic]

Sure, definitely unionize. That'll probably give bigger companies a better incentive to outsource IT to India.

 

[Marinski]

I know people like to trash unions but some do have their benefits.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: Marinski
I know people like to trash unions but some do have their benefits.

QFT, especially the Building Trades.

 

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: Citrix
i am on my last week of pager duty and it has sucked. I have been paged by our call center every fricken night between 1am and today it was 4:30 am. Sure me and the other admin get 33 bucks a day for pager duty but its not enough in our opinion. When we bring this up that the 33 bucks is crap especially if we have to work a issue for several hours in the middle of the night. Management says that we should feel lucky becuse many companies dont comp you for being on pager duty and expect you to do it as part of the salary.

well fine, me and my co-workers feel that they are exploiting us, our engineers write software that can be buggy on the back end but works great from the customers perspective. so instead of fixing it we in Sys admin have to come up with back-end work arounds to resolve issues before 1, the customer sees it, or two we get paged. Most of the time we can come up with something to make our life a little easier but we shouldn't have to do that!!! :|

So this morning i get paged at 4:30 from a supervisor in our call center asking me to research a fricken question that a customer had. WTFBBQ!!!!!!! I asked moron supervisor if he knows that Colorado is in the mountain time zone so we are two hours behind. I then asked him if this was a system emergency?

Mumble mumble,

I asked him again is the product down?

ummm no i dont think so.

I told him ill look at it when i get into the office at 8AM Mountain time. I know i was kinda rude to him but holy f*cking sh*t dont fricken page me on bullsh*t.

I think its time to unionize!!! unions are the answer to everything and IT is well over due for it.


Edit:

humm check this out, Austraila has a IT union.

Find another job, plenty of companies out there looking for qualified IT workers. Lots of them pay a hell of lot more than 33 bucks a day as well.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: Citrix

Originally posted by: NuclearNed
Pfft. I would join an IT union only on threat of physical torture. Unions don't make anything better for anyone; they just give a group of people the false sense that they have some power.

false sense of power?? the UAW has a lot of power and its very real.

I stand by my statement. What power the UAW has is slipping by the day. What power will UAW have when American automakers are forced out of business by UAW's greed?

No greed on the part of the Corporation of course :roll:

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Rage187
absolutely not, how the hell would we be able to get rid of useless people?

Stop hiring family and friends first at the top exec levels of the Corporations perhaps?

 

[FoBoT]

Your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
NO. We don't need unions in the modern era. They are a relic of the past and should be banned.

did you read that on a bumpersticker? :roll:

 

[Descartes]

I always felt that some degree of organization is necessary. It need not be a labor union, but even a better industry standardization of procedures, tools, etc. would be beneficial. This applies to all aspects of IT, imo. Yes, there are CMM levels, countless certifications organizations and individuals can obtain, etc. but none of them accomplish the same level of standardization one might see in other industries. This lack seems to allow many to exploit IT from both ends; underqualified people are billed at absurd rates while well-qualified people are stuck in competition with those that are unqualified without any real ability to market themselves on a quantitative level. In the end, qualified IT people are craftsman that have learned to navigate through the industry well enough to squeeze out a living (and an excellent living it can be).

Five years ago I formed a "group" with these intentions. The group grew to about 350 active members before I left, and now it's considerably larger. There are now countless groups all over the world. It's groups such as these that allow qualified IT people to network in a familiar environment to share ideas, contacts, etc. It's the only thing we have short of a labor union and lackluster quality certification.

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit. I don't think protection from working crappy hours and having to deal with annoying people is the point here. That's largely the nature of IT and any service-based business with a focus on delivery to customers that don't know what they want but want results anyway.

 

[GoatMonkey]

There are a few answers here.

1. Become a developer and fix the problems yourself.

2. Be more involved in the final testing and acceptance process of the software development cycle so you don't have to maintain crappy software.

3. Learn to troubleshoot better and fix the problems before they happen.

4. Get a new job.

 

[PokerGuy]

I don't get it..... what's this nonsense about a union?? First, lets understand that unions never make any organization better, they just make it more inefficient and costly.

If you don't like it, you are completely free to go work somewhere else. If you think you are underpaid or not compensated fairly for taking a call in the middle of the night, you are free to go work somewhere else. Geez.....

 

[LLCOOLJ]

Originally posted by: PokerGuy
I don't get it..... what's this nonsense about a union?? First, lets understand that unions never make any organization better, they just make it more inefficient and costly.

If you don't like it, you are completely free to go work somewhere else. If you think you are underpaid or not compensated fairly for taking a call in the middle of the night, you are free to go work somewhere else. Geez.....

Of course you and your fellow workers are free to Unionize and be paid fair wages for your time..geez. It's up to you, either take what's given you and stfu or go Union.

 

[Legendary]

You get paid for Pager duty? Quit your whining!

 

[Apathetic]

Originally posted by: piasabird
So how much you get paid and if you add the total hours into this, how many hours you working.

Just take extra time off during the day.

$33.00 is around what? 2 hours pay? 1 hours pay?

This should encourage you to fix you problems so the system works better. If it a faulty program, then make the programmer be woke up to come in and fix it. If it is the network it is probably your fault for not setting it up correctly. If you make the big bucks then it is your problem. So fix it so you dont get called. If your system worked you would not get called at all.

Bingo. If the application is giving errors, call the programmer. The developer is then highly motivated to make sure things work correctly.

Dave

 

[Journer]

unions are BAD! very, very BAD. in fact...they should be illegal. nothing good has ever come from unions. it just makes stupid people feel like they have control when they are just the puppets of the union leader -_-