Theory 1: HN commentators are irrational and could make more money.
Theory 2: HN commentators correctly identify that a union would make them less money.
The age old clash of collectivists and individualists. I personally think strong union activity is more likely to move tech clusters for America to China than it is to make software engineers more money. Software engineers already seem to be making a lot of money, it is unclear that asking for more will work, even if done loudly.
> Software engineers already seem to be making a lot of money, it is unclear that asking for more will work, even if done loudly.
Software engineers at Amazon, Apple, Uber and others could show solidarity to non-tech colleagues, just like in Hollywood, the Directors Guild barely has any reason to initiate strike action, but doesn't cross the picket line, but instead often supports "lowlier" unions.
That said - money isn't the only thing unions can negotiate: all that industry-wide malfeasance folk like to complain about on HN, e.g. around privacy and advertising: unions could negotiate rules around those.
Another one is a rule about not being managed by someone who can't code.
But in general the solidarity problem is huge. If you look at Europe where we get strikes now and again, there's always a fault line between the group that wants some change and their friends. The third party always has this problem of "do we want to piss off people that we personally are ok with at the moment?". It's understandable too, everyday people don't want to be bothered by some specific issue that causes a general strike.
> ... e.g. around privacy and advertising: unions could negotiate rules around those...
That is a political minefield, because it implies fairly directly that software engineers should try to leverage their technical knowledge to enforce their social values.
1. Risk of migrating the tech clusters to exotic foreign lands.
2. Some fairly substantial minorities in the tech industry do not support the political morals and values of the majority, and will be truly unhappy about that sort of faux-union.
Theory 2: HN commentators correctly identify that a union would make them less money.
The age old clash of collectivists and individualists. I personally think strong union activity is more likely to move tech clusters for America to China than it is to make software engineers more money. Software engineers already seem to be making a lot of money, it is unclear that asking for more will work, even if done loudly.