By
The Associated Press
SEATTLE - Dave Rady, a customer service representative at Amazon.com, is the kind of worker unions want to attract to stay viable in a high-tech economy. But his views on organized labor symbolize why those efforts have largely been unsuccessful.
Rady believes union contracts are too rigid for companies like his that must react quickly in the ever-changing high-tech industry. He said he would quit if the employees at the Seattle-based online retailer unionize.
"We wouldn't have the flexibility that we need month to month, week to week, quarter to quarter," said the 30-something Rady.
That sentiment frustrates Marcus Courtney, a co-founder of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers affiliated with the powerful Communications Workers of America. So far, WashTech has attracted only 250 dues-paying members.
"Not everybody is an Internet cowboy ready to retire at the age of 35," Courtney said. "We need to build a union that can really represent technology workers, ... that can address their issues in a way that labor hasn't done."
A former temporary worker at Microsoft Corp., Courtney believes high-tech companies take advantage of employees, often using temporary workers to avoid paying benefits and cutting jobs as soon as profits dip. He believes unions would offer high-tech workers more stability.
The high-tech industry is very loosely defined, so there are few hard numbers on how many people are employed and how many belong to unions. But there is general agreement that there are at least several million workers, a tiny fraction of whom are unionized.
