[consulting] Drupal workers' interests [was Drupal Certification]

[Victor Kane]

Microsoft workers won a historic union battle (organized in the writers
union) when Microsoft did not want to pay overtime to contracted workers.
just one example.

On Mon, Aug 10, 2009 at 3:10 PM, Sami Khan <sami at etopian.net> wrote:

> The quality of work is not directly contingent to whether or not the
> workers are in labour unions -- perhaps partially contingent based on
> whether lousy workers can easily be disposed of or not... but that
> depends on the standards of the union. If at the founding of the union
> you set a bar and say that if you do generally lousy work you can be
> dismissed or have to be re-educated then you can control the quality of
> work as well.
>
> The point of unions though is to protect a market in favour of the
> employees -- to the extent the market is under the control of all the
> workers united. Do unions produce better work, perhaps or perhaps not.
> Does the non-unionized worker like the a Chinese worker produce the best
> products, or the safest, or is best for both the workers or consumers?
> In their case, everyone belongs to the same union, hence they are in a
> purely capitalistic environment. How does that fare for the average
> Chinese worker?
>
> I think however that there is no way to make a blanket statement. IT has
> not had to deal with unions because it has been generally a high payed
> sort of profession. Over time that's changing, to the point that it's
> becoming more and more important due to the economic conditions,
> outsourcing etc. for IT workers to protect their interests. If that also
> means at the same time protecting quality, it can be done. That we want
> to protect workers rights, but not at the quality of the product can be
> a rallying cry for such a movement.
>
> In the end any objectives can be met, they simply have to be defined and
> power used creatively to reach a good compromise that serves those which
> are affected by it... That's the point. Non-unionized workers can be
> arrogant just as long as there is well-paying work for what they do. You
> will not get the same arguments from anyone who is poor, broke, or whose
> market has been cannibalized by opportunistic companies.
>
>
> Regards,
> Sami
>
> On Mon, 2009-08-10 at 13:56 -0400, Ayen Designs wrote:
> > Union labor means superior product? Not. I can buy a handcrafted
> > motorcycle that's a better product than anything for sale in the
> > store. I can buy a handcrafted bedroom set that's better than anything
> > for sale in the furniture store. Here, I've lived in the northeast,
> > where all construction and utility work is union, and the southeast,
> > where it's not, and if there is any quality difference on my home,
> > it's better in the southeast, at a fraction of the price. Home
> > schooled and privately schooled (non-government) children do
> > consistently better (here in the U.S.) in testing than those educated
> > by union labor (although the government controlling the curriculum
> > plays a part there), on and on. Unions might mean higher quality on an
> > assembly line, but development is not an assembly line, the last time
> > I looked. I'd like a good example of where creativity and intuition
> > plays as much a role in the product as it does in development, rather
> > than rote, and the end-product is demonstratively of higher quality
> > because of a union.
> >
> > Victor Kane wrote:
> >
> >
> > > A union contract?
> > >
> > >
> > > All work done with union labor speaks of a superior quality.
> > >
> > >
> >
> > --
> >
> >
> > Ayen Designs
> > 388 Bullsboro Drive #105 · Newnan, Georgia 30263
> > 404-271-9734
> > ayendesigns.com
> >
> > Ayen Designs is a tradename of the computer services division of
> >
> >
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