Name a company with a CEO and management who are super fair and reasonable (e.g. paying employees the full value of their labor instead of profiting from the surplus value created by the employee)
Most of pro-union comments incorrectly assume that unions create some worker utopia.
Name unionized company that offers salary and perks comparable to Google.
Not to mention that pretty much all unions have very strong pro-seniority rules. Work harder than others? Produce more value than others? Doesn't matter, the guy that has been 5 years longer gets paid more, gets more vacation time etc. How is that fair?
In context of programming jobs, this is a case of "be careful what you wish for"
As a tech worker in a union, about the only union negotiated pro-seniority rules apply to layoffs; my employer does have tenure-based rules that apply to vacation, etc., but those apply equally to non-union employees, and tenure-based vacation formulas are common in non-union shops, too.
I've not heard that about the UK's second largest union, Unite. I know people who work are part of that union (the people I'm thinking of work for BAE) and when they've talked about promotions and so on, they've never mentioned any kind of union-driven pro-seniority rule, and there is certainly no different vacation allowance for union members.
Socialism is not the definition of "fair". One could argue that it's not "fair" for e.g. workers manufacturing BMW's to make more than those manufacturing Kias simply because BMW's demand a higher price or have better margins.
Why wouldn't the employee work for themselves if they expect the full surplus of their value to go to them? I mean, it's not like the company is a charity, right? It's designed to be profitable for it's owners.