It's Time to Look at the Unionization of Engineers

If you are a civil engineer, registered or not, the prospect of unions and all they portend usually means something unfavorable to you. Like it or not, however, engineers will probably be faced with the dilemma to join, or not to join, a union within the next five years, and certainly within the next decade. To prepare yourself, it is important to consider the historical perspective of unions, how unions could evolve in engineering circles, what is a professional, what would motivate engineers, and some alternatives to unions. This article is definitely not an attempt to sway any individual in favor of unions, but is an attempt at codifying some concepts civil engineers will probably face in the near future. Throughout the organizing movement of unions, they characteristically took individual parts of an industry and unionized them until the entire employed population of a firm was organized. A similar domino effect can occur in the engineering field.