Classic problem with a classic answer: H1-B visa holders each have much more to gain than any American worker individually has to lose. Concentrated benefit vs. diffuse cost.

I've wondered about this very same question myself, since you'd think IT workers would generally have the intelligence and predisposition towards empiricism to rationally look at unions, performing matter-of-fact cost-vs-benefits assessments of what union membership would entail, and then proceed.

But however rational people may be-- or tell themselves they are-- I wonder if the libertarian culture of IT, which may one the one hand have helped to foster the notion of open source, may also be an ideological stumbling block for many.

And of course there's the decidedly non-rational schadenfreude-ish snobbery of someone holding on to a low rung of the white-collar ladder, telling himself he's better than all those unsophisticated blue collar boobs who join unions because they've accepted their lot in life and aren't on the fast track, etc.

I think there's a lot of ambivalence about the visa issue. As a scientist, I'm very skeptical about the use of H1-B visas: I think they're pushing down salaries, increasing unemployment in the sciences and driving American students away from science careers. But at the same time, I work with a lot of foreign-born scientists who have overcome great obstacles to get where they are. Do I side with the collective good, or with the nice people who work with me?

Software billionaires benefit enormously from cheap Indian IT labor, whether H1-B or outsourced. (How do you think they got to be billionaires in the first place?) Cutting a check to an organization that supports American IT workers is simply not going to happen.

American workers don’t organize because organization requires cooperation. In an organization, a worker might have to put the needs of the group ahead of his or her individual, immediate gain and that concept is contrary to American culture. We’re a culture that says the individual is the most important segment of society. Indian culture emphasizes the family unit as most important so Indian workers already know how to sublimate individual needs in favor of group gains. Everything about modern American ideals rejects the idea that one’s own status can be elevated through group effort.

American IT workers believe the American fantasy that everyone can be at the top of the pyramid (though I often wonder who they think makes up the base, their neighbors who harbor the same beliefs?), that in an “ownership society” everyone can be an owner (which is why they’re willing to work for stock options, and again I wonder who they think makes up the workforce if not themselves?), and that looking out for Number One is the way to get ahead. That these absolute beliefs rely on inherent contradiction is no deterrent. These beliefs are one reason we go to work every day to sit in our cubicles and toil for others with the faith that one day we will be the other for whom the workers toil.

We don’t need billionaire IT owners to finance struggling worker organizations. American workers know how to pay for things they value better than anyone anywhere in the world. Until American workers believe that an organization can help them get ahead individually, no amount of money will help them cooperate.

I'm an IT worker. I would love to be unionized. I'm tired of 60-80 hour work-weeks accepted as "standard" for IT workers, tired of seeing my boss going golfing while I'm doing server upgrades. I, and many of my friends, would be interested in unionizing.

The problem with IT unions is the same as with non-IT unions. Workers don't see a benefit for them.. Until unions can come up with the "killer app" of organized labor, they will continue to fall in membership.

Personally, I don't understand why this is even a problem, I can think of a dozen ways to increase union membership just off the top of my head. It's called "Added Value". Offer union 401(k)s with match, optional health insurance, etc. Show that there's a valid benefit for having a union membership from day one.

Imagine going to workers at Wal-Mart and saying "Not only can we get you more pay, but you can join our 401(k) plan and get free dental!". You'd have to fight them off with a stick.

Heck, with the right stick, you could get corporations to want to be unionized. What if, for smaller companies, unions offered health care? Get a big enough pool of people, and you can get a huge discount on medical insurance. Plus, your insurance is through the union, not the company, so it would be portable across jobs.

But, I guess that's too easy...

Great comments.

I merely want to add that the difficulties that I.T. workers have in embracing the idea of unions and the hard work of organizing is hardly a problem of I.T. workers alone.

I observed the riots of French youth over changes in labor law that would reduce their employment security as showing an independence of thought and stubborn spirit in defense of their own interests that one would never, ever find here.

What a slavish and fearful bunch we have become! Is that a legacy of our history of slavery, I wonder.

I like to challenge the (inevitably white & male) members of my extended family, who indulge in a taste for libertarian and conservative politics, with this challenge:

Why do you value kissing corporate ass more than your own health, security, retirement? The health, etc, of your family, your wife and children? The future of your children?

Why does kissing corporate ass count more than any other human or social value? Why do you sell your loyalty for such a cheap price?

It comes down to who you ARE, the choices you make, the actions you take. In this country, the philosphy that 'The business of American is business' means in a nutshell that the business of citizens is to kiss rich butt. (Suck in that polluted air, baby! The elite refresh their lungs with sojurns on their ranches in Wyoming.)

As a result, the richie rich have taken the rest of us to the cleaners. The great shakedown is underway.