> People need to be able to say "I studied what you asked me to make, and refuse to work on this illegal, insecure, depressing cruft, and if you fire me for having professional ethics my lawyers will empty your company bank account."
This only works if everyone or the vast majority join unions. Otherwise, those who join will get penalised with lower offers or no offers at all.
> This only works if everyone or the vast majority join unions.
This is a common objection but I think it's wrong. Putting aside the
huge differences between US (at will) and global employment law, the
idea of a fluid, frictionless workforce is quite the myth. Keeping
wages down and conditions poor very much relies on the propagation of
that myth that ethics will work against you. so please be careful not
to do yourself a disservice (if indeed you are a developer).
In reality quite small minorities have a disproportionate impact on
change. Some accounts claim it's as low as three percent. I'm
sceptical of that, but the fact remains; if only a handful of people
object but with severe consequences by the force of law, employers
will play it safe. I find it unlikely that any employers would survive
long if it transpired they were disfavouring members of IEEE, ACM, IET
or whatever.
> any employers would survive long if it transpired they were disfavouring members of IEEE, ACM, IET or whatever.
I highly doubt most employers even know what those organisations are. Taking it even further, there is probably even a significant amount of devs that are unaware of them as well. I don't think devs have this much power. Unless you are a tech company, devs are likely highly replaceable and in my opinion the trend goes in that direction. Obviously, this excludes skilled FAANG devs
This only works if everyone or the vast majority join unions. Otherwise, those who join will get penalised with lower offers or no offers at all.