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 humphrmiPremium
join:2000-12-21
Skokie, IL | High Tech Unionization Let me say first off, with no little fear that I'll be flamed for my view, this: IMHO, unions are very bad for high-tech workers.
Before you call me a big, bad Bourgeois pig -- let me tell you, I've been a Union employee. I was a union organizer for the AFL-CIO / IAM, and a member of Guido's Union for Home Center Employees (yeah, whatever it was called.) I'll take up my labor position later, if asked. But for now, let's talk about the alternative, at least from a customer service standpoint.
Bad customer service is self correcting. Yeah, it's damn frustrating to those on the bleeding edge, or loyal customers. But over the long term, it corrects itself. Just ask Ted Waite. Gateway is the company that almost wasn't -- all because of first level tech support's poor training, lack of authority, and overall apathy back about five years ago. Barring another party's intervention, only two possible scenarios can result from this:
1. The company will lose business to the point that it is no longer viable, and the employees will move on to possibly better postions. No one will ever be frustrated by them again.
2. The company will realize it's problems and quickly move to address them, and the employees will inherit better positions. No one will ever be frustrated by them again.
Unions add unkonwns to this Keyesnian theory, but introducing restrictions that have nothing to do with the market conditions. Perhaps their contract restricts job description changes, or to some degree. This hamstrings a recovery, limiting companies to fewer options.
What does this move have to do with that? Well, it's probably not #1 or #2 yet. It's probably a step on the way to realizing that they need a #1 or #2. Here's the possible scenarios I see playing out:
Assumptions:
Verizon is a Telco competing with every other cut-rate ISP that can't afford to sell their DSL for the prices they do. Verizon has lots of capital.
Scenario 1: Verizon is wholly unable to deal with data-loss issues at the end-user level. They can deal with consumer voice, and business data, but not consumer data. They're buried. Quick, Batman -- what do we do? Managers, start your SLA's! Ready, set... outsource!.
Scenario 2: Verizon is wholly unable to deal with data-loss issues at the end-user level. They offer a service that no one is happy with anyway, and they lose money for each new installation. Can you say cut our losses?
Scenario 3: Verizon, in a monumental fit of pique, has decided to exit the DSL business. Right!
Most of us are getting service far below it's fair profit price-point. But fair profit price-point != fair market value. Verizon could be hibernating it's service somewhat, to take it back out and put it on the mantle when it makes more sense. For now, I wouldn't want to be a Verizon customer, but then again it can't be any worse than any other DSL ISP out there, right? 
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The Mark of the Beast: vi vi vi | |
| If you read the articles you would have seen that this was an outsourced call center (the original Whoreizon union busting tactic). The employees there voted to join IBEW so that maybe they could be paid an honest wage and be treated like human beings. Strangely enough, they suddenly became un-needed. I am not a fan of unions, never have been, never will be, but if any company ever deserved a union, it's Whoreizon and their contractors!
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keep those FCC complaints coming »www.fcc.gov/cib/ccformpage.html The artist formerly known as ANOTHERHAPPYBACUSTOMER |Leader of the Lollipop Gang | | |
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humphrmiPremium
join:2000-12-21
Skokie, IL | said by AHBAC:
If you read the articles you would have seen that this was an outsourced call center (the original Whoreizon union busting tactic).
Then I guess the logical conclusion is scenario 2, eh?
said by AHBAC:
The employees there voted to join IBEW so that maybe they could be paid an honest wage and be treated like human beings.
I hate to say this, but joining a union and being "paid an honest wage and be treated like human beings" are not synonymous. In fact, as they've learned, they're in worse shape now. Oh, yeah... I know, it was the big, mean Telco that put that on them, right? It had nothing to do with the idiot who thought that unionizing a cost center of a under-profitable market loss-leader was a good idea, right?
said by AHBAC:
Strangely enough, they suddenly became un-needed.
Oh, yeah... I know. Those damn tech companies make billions of dollars, just like amazon.com, right? So the Union rep thinks, "Hey, where's our piece?" Now, when they suddenly wake up and realize that they are low-skill labor in a low-margin market, it's Verizon's fault, right?
said by AHBAC:
I am not a fan of unions, never have been, never will be, but if any company ever deserved a union, it's Whoreizon and their contractors!
They deserve what they asked for. In this case, it sounds like they got it.
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The Mark of the Beast: vi vi vi | |
| said by humphrmi:
They deserve what they asked for. In this case, it sounds like they got it.
I suppose you feel the same about Guatemalan sweat shops. That's where Whoreizon will go next I'm sure. They can hire some big thuggy goons with guns to take care of "problems", while Ivan makes how much? For What??
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keep those FCC complaints coming »www.fcc.gov/cib/ccformpage.html The artist formerly known as ANOTHERHAPPYBACUSTOMER |Leader of the Lollipop Gang
[text was edited by author 2001-01-21 19:59:31] | |
humphrmiPremium
join:2000-12-21
Skokie, IL | said by AHBAC:
I suppose you feel the same about Guatemalan sweat shops. That's where Whoreizon will go next I'm sure. They can hire some big thuggy goons with guns to take care of "problems", while Ivan makes how much? For What??
Actually, you brought up Guatemalan sweat shops, I don't recall sharing my view on that yet.
How much do Guatemalan labor practices apply to this issue? Do you have any idea how much better off any employee in the U.S. is than in third-world countries? I suppose they're all the same to you. Yeah, I'm sure that "Guatamalan sweat shop" argument really got those call center employees charged up at the organize meetings. Too bad they didn't think twice about the complete idiocy of the comparison before the jumped to their doom.
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The Mark of the Beast: vi vi vi | |
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