Times are tough for techies today, but some programmers see a solution in a medieval institution.
A cadre of about 1,000 coders have banded together in what they call the Programmers Guild. They are calling on software engineers to unite to protect jobs, wages and even the quality of their digital craft.
The organization, based in Summit, New Jersey, plans to announce its formal incorporation in the next few weeks. Its message is striking a chord among software developers hit by a double whammy in the past few months: massive layoffs at tech firms and the presence of thousands of guest workers competing for jobs.
The number of interested programmers e-mailing guild chair John Miano each week has ramped up from ten a year ago to 60 or 70. Miano says many of the techies are frustrated about the H-1B visa program, and the guild is not sitting by idly. It alerted the Justice Department to possible discrimination in favor of H-1Bs at a Texas IT staffing firm and may file a formal complaint.
"The good news is (the H-1B issue is) kind of a catalyst in that it brings people together," said Miano, a software consultant from Summit. "The bad news is we'd rather be doing something else."
The something else is creating a craft guild like those of centuries ago. Miano and crew plan to draw up standards for coding, which could simultaneously help programmers advance their skills, promote higher wages in the field and clarify realistic project expectations.
Miano launched the guild two years ago when he was angry about President Clinton expanding the H-1B program. Eventually, he hopes to have a Washington lobbyist. For now, guild leaders are hammering out dues rates -- likely to be $40 or less a year -- and benefits. These may include access to health insurance, a pension plan and discounts for training courses.
The Guild isn't the first group to serve techies. Both the Association for Computing Machinery and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers are older and bigger. The ACM boasts 80,000 members and the IEEE over 360,000. Both societies have committees devoted to the programming profession, and the IEEE has opposed the H-1B program.
Then there are outright union efforts. The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, linked with the Communications Workers of America, has pushed to organize Microsoft temps and Amazon.com customer service reps. Disgruntled IBM employees also have turned to the CWA and formed Alliance@IBM. In Silicon Valley, an AFL-CIO group called Working Partnerships USA is trying to organize and train entry-level tech workers.
Miano says the Guild is open to cooperating with unions, but has no plans to go after union contracts. He also suggests his group will be more pugnacious than the ACM or IEEE. "We want to be pains in the butt to congressmen who will sell American jobs for campaign cash," he said.
Despite this tough talk, the guild won't get far, predicts Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, a trade group that includes IBM, Intel and Microsoft.
"The whole notion of a union or a guild is alien to 99 percent of information technology workers," Miller says. "Programmers tend to be individualists."
Coder Steve Minnerly begs to differ. Since graduating magna cum laude in computer science from Marist College in 1999, he's landed just four months of programming work. Minnerly, 48, calls the "shortage" of IT workers a tech industry lie that drives down wages and plans to join the guild. His only concern is scraping together $40.
"I've been unemployed going on six months," he said. "I'll probably have to wait a little bit."
