Maybe you ought to know about me.
I have been a union member. I work with union craftsmen every day.
I know how this works.
What doesn't work is to look at the whole situation like some greedy, hungry dog. It is not all about how much money you can get for an hour's work.
Yes, HP's have been complaining about the rate for quite some time.
It isn't about how much per diem you can get for an outage.
Again, a major concern for the techs for years.
It isn't even about how many weeks of work you can get in a year.
The one thing that the techs really need, whether they know it or not, is a contract.
Sure, you can post a "proposed" contract on your website. But that is nothing more than promises made by people who are in no position to keep them. A contract has to be made by both the labor AND the management. If you can get an actual contract, all these other things will come to be - maybe with a few compromises from both sides.
You will never get a contract if you just pound that same old drum, "demand, demand, demand" By definition, and by law, a contract must give equal consideration to both parties. So, instead of saying "we deserve" or "we have a right to" all the damn time, you want to switch to things like "we will provide a superior service by fully trained, competent technicians in exchange for a fair compensation package." Then, you have to back it up.
Be careful here. You might get what you ask for. If you promise a better-trained technician for a higher price, you have to train them. Guess who pays for the training of union members. Yep, it comes right out of your hourly rate. You pay for it from your paycheck. And not just your training. Every hour you work, you'll be assessed for the training of the "apprentices". You want benefits? Same deal. You will pay for benefits that you will never use, and sometimes you will use benefits that are more than you paid for. This is all part of the "collective" concept of a union.
In my opinion, it is better to have a contract than not. So, I encourage the formation of a union. Only, do it with your eyes open. Realize that it will not mean people throwing huge sums of money at you for doing the same thing at the same level that you have been doing before.
But if you think a BA will be any different from a Bartlett recruiter in regards to favoritism, honesty, and hiring only the best-qualified people -- think again. Same job. Same reality. Different title. There will be no difference in the way some are treated. Some will be treated better, and some worse.
Doing SOMETHING is not the same to me as doing the RIGHT THING. Signing a "letter of understanding" with a Canadian company who is in the business of providing temporary web designers and computer programmers is not the same thing as signing a contract with your employer. To me, it all looks like an ineffective way to slide in the back door of this business, when the way in is to organize the employees of the existing companies (who WILL have all the work anyway) and getting a contract with them. Until NPUA shows any evidence of making any attempt at that whatsoever, I won't put any faith in them.