The lack of unions in the industry is making me leave. It’s going to leave out many of its current employees to dry: I want something better than the word of an entrepreneur.
I wouldn’t want some outside organization coming in and forcing me to pay dues, demanding changes to the structure of the company, devaluing my equity, and making it impossible to fire poor performers that make my job harder.
Do you think the competition for talent for them is more or less fierce than it is for you?
An alternative that doesn't seem quite like a monopoly is the UFC with mixed martial arts. Bellator MMA is a viable (but less prestigious) alternative for someone that doesn't want to work with the UFC.
The NBA is the biggest game in town, but that's a question of money and I see some movement on that front. I expect to see the Chinese leagues start spending a lot more money in the near future, and Euroleague is starting to pay some players salaries that are significant even compared to the NBA (this year, Mirotic basically got what the Jazz would have offered him, after you take into account lifestyle perks and the like that come from Euroleague--and nobody in the NBA is giving Alexey Shved $4mil). The NFL is arguably closer to a monopoly but they're having a competitor to it launched next year in the re-launched XFL. Salary numbers aren't out there AFAIK, but there it's a billionaires-being-billionaires game of "what's your pain tolerance?".
Unions are just an avenue for bargaining. In my experience, which has only been in a healthy union with people who take an interest in the value it provides, it has been so liberating! It encourages us to discuss things in the open that would have always been closed-door conversations before, and I never worry about whether I am being taken advantage of. I honestly don’t even make much money for a software engineer, but I love the domain I work in and having the union has made my work relationships just feel less exploitative. It feels less like work.
I always find these things arguments a bit weird. Lets look at the concerns
> forcing me to pay dues
Don't join. No dues, no help from the union.
> demanding changes to the structure of the company
As an employee you have no say in the structure of the company and it may restructure at any moment. As a union member at least have some say in what the union pushes for. It seems like this is arguing for no control instead of some.
> devaluing my equity
How?
> making it impossible to fire poor performers that make my job harder.
Again how? A union can't stop a company from firing someone (barring contracts the company may have signed with the union). A union can assist the fired employee in things like negotiating severance, or mounting a legal challenge if the employee was discriminated against.
As someone who just witnessed a mass-layoff, I wonder how much better off the employees might be if they had someone on their side, negotiating severance, notice periods etc.
Everything a union does is paid for out of member dues. They don't have infinite resources to spend in constant legal battles challenging the clearly legal firing of a shitty employee, and if the did waste member dues like that, they'd quickly find themselves no members. If the union isn't representing your interests, just leave it. It'll quickly run out of members and money and become toothless.
There is no such thing. You do have the right to cast a vote from time to time, but that's the full extent of your influence over the organization. Between elections you are there to take orders and experience the outcome of events decided by a random union type without your say or input. That's not control. That's just another master telling you what to do.