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> Collective employment agreements mandate minimums, not maximums.

Collective employment agreements can mandate whatever is negotiated between the union and management, within the bounds of contract law and labor law. Of course they can include maximums.

What is likely to happen is that a salary range would be defined for each engineering level. The top of that range is likely to be lower than what many engineers at large companies currently earn, yet higher than what many engineers at startups currently earn. Therein is the leveling effect.

Leveling is good if you level up, but bad if you level down. Many engineers at large companies would level down, if they were to join a union. So why should they support unionization?




Workers don’t have an incentive to negotiate a maximum. In practice, it’s minimums that get negotiated.

It’s also not like wages come from a fixed budget. They can be increased by lowering profits. This is after all all about class struggle.




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