Blue Collar Coding

Anil Dash posted about creating Vo-Tech schools for coders advocating for an education system that trains people to take up IT jobs maintaining infrastructure. It imagines something similar to how welders or mechanics are trained. This gave me two initial reactions:

1. Are IT jobs homogenized enough that this is possible?
2. Does this lead to a resurgence of labor unions? 

The answer to the first question could be "yes", but I think this requires a stabilization of of client software - looking at you Firefox and Chrome. In large organizations, such as where I work, I think this has happened in practice where I have to use systems that do not work when using new clients. Of course having to use a VM or Terminal Server to connect to these is just awful.

As for unionization, I personally suspect we are the cusp of class wars, as the Gini coefficient of wealth in the US spreads. Unions to me appear to be a resolution to this conflict; if you buy into the notion of a cycle of to these things. Right now membership is at or near an all-time low, but I suspect the floor is near. While I don't think Dash even realizes this may be what he's really writing about I suspect it's tied together.