Possibly true when the programmers are building the company's product. I happen to work for a company where all of IT is a cost center.

I think if that was true then large raises would be the norm as they know programmers often leave every couple years for a 20+ % raise.

Culture of omerta - I had to look it up.

There'll always be culture of omerta when you don't give someone a piece of the company.

If I'm an hourly employee, our interests are not aligned. You don't value me enough to share the wins but I know I'll be sharing in the losses by getting fired.

To everyone pretending otherwise - wake the fuck up.

I say this both being a non-unionized often-contractor, but in some other industries that would be the union. Ignoring all the politics sounds that, growing up I certainly got to witness my dad’s coworkers and union come together to help out their members personally when tragedy struck, as well as planning social events and fundraisers. Some parts of union can be really bad, but they’re not exclusively bad.

In a HR org that is damaging to the company, they always side with the company; What is unique to HR, is that can often turn them AGAINST an individual worker.