&gt; How many programmers belong to a union?<p>Thankfully none.<p>One of the main reasons the car companies stumbled are unions.  The whole thing has degenerated to insanity squared.<p>For example, GM had a clause in their contract requiring them to not fire employees displaced by technology or automation.  In other words, if you improve your workflow and process and can do the same work with 25 people instead of 100, you can&#x27;t fire the people you no-longer need.  All incentives to innovate in process and technology very quickly evaporate with such insanity in place.<p>They reportedly had thousands of people show up for &quot;work&quot; every day drawing 95% salaries and full benefits only to go to this building, read the newspaper and drink coffee all day.<p>Unions had their day and reason to exist.  I am not proposing they need to disappear.  However, they need to mutate into something that works towards a mutually beneficial and sustainable ecosystem.<p>By pushing for, and obtaining, ridiculous grants, they create short term apparent gains and HUGE long term losses as thousands of people lose their jobs when they industry they worked in simply crumbles under the weight of onerous arrangements that cause them to lose the ability to compete and remain financially viable.  In fact, if you look at Detroit, one could argue the unions went beyond costing people their jobs and companies their ability to compete, they actually succeeded at destroying a whole city.<p>How is this, in any imaginable reality, good?<p>A couple of articles:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wsj.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;SB114118143005186163" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wsj.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;SB114118143005186163</a><p>This one covers other issues:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.forbes.com&#x2F;sites&#x2F;realspin&#x2F;2013&#x2F;05&#x2F;20&#x2F;what-explains-gms-problems-with-the-uaw&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.forbes.com&#x2F;sites&#x2F;realspin&#x2F;2013&#x2F;05&#x2F;20&#x2F;what-explain...</a><p>From the Forbes article:<p>&quot;A worker might be able to retire in his early 50s and collect an annual pension of $37,500, paid wholly by GM. By 2008 there were 4.6 retired GM employees for each active worker. Did anyone think this was sustainable?&quot;<p>It&#x27;s called &quot;killing the golden goose&quot;.