<== Site of the Week for 2009-07-06 ==>

Unions v. Professional Associations

I will confess upfront: I have never been a big fan of unions.

This distaste is not driven by a preference for management over workers. The distaste is driven by the dialectical foundation and political structure of unions.

There is a strong need for worker advocacy groups. I simply believe that there are more productive models available, and that industry would be wise to promote these alternative structures over the union structure.

The union movement evolved from the Hegelian/Marxist mindset. This mindset attempts to reduce complex issues to dialectical conflicts. In this method, activists seek to magnify conflicts between workers and employer. The activist uses the conflict to create a political structure to counter the employer.

Needless to say, employers must develop a political structure to counter the union.

The circular process can get extremely divisive and often ends up creating a larger gap between employers and employees than need be.

I do not believe that the unionization process provides a long term solution to the needs of workers. In some cases, the union simply devolves into yet another bossman that keeps workers down.

The Professional Society

I believe that the professional association is a preferable structure to unions. Professional associations focus primarily on the needs of a given profession. Such societies tend to be interested in things such as industry standards, worker education, accreditation and professional development.

Professional societies can provide guidelines on pricing and billing. For example, it is helpful for all members of a given profession to have the same definition of an hour. After all, a contractor bidding a forty-five minute hour could undercut a competitor bidding on a sixty minute hour without providing cost effective product.

By concentrating on the needs of the members of a profession and the individuals engaged in the profession, I believe that professional societies are better positioned to improve the lots of workers than unions.

Professional Association of Resume Writers

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to make a professional society the Community Color Site of the Week.

I chose the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches as it is a society of professionals who work directly in the area of professional development.

Resume writing is a valuable service. The resume plays an extremely important role in our career development. Unfortunately, we are not born with instincts to guide us through the resume writing process.

A resume is essentially a self description. As we live inside of ourselves, it is very difficult to write a description that accurately reflects the way the world see us.

Writing a good resume is an art form. Interestingly, many of the best resume writers have strong people skills, opposed to pure deductive skills or advanced education.

Resume writing is a profession open to people with high school education or liberal arts education. It is one of the few professions where a person could develop a profitable business through quality work and a direct personal network.