Don't call it that. The idea is to avoid words like "union" or "guild" that arouse suspicion. Professional associations like the AMA and ADA fly under the anti-union radar.
Nah both are the same. Both are professional associations represent their members (the description of a union). How they go about that depends on the union/whatever you want to call it.
It's funny, I had a similar thought while I was in the shower earlier today. I observed that while we _don't_ have anything resembling a trade union, I've never personally felt the need for it.
On the other hand, isn't it the case that while trades have unions, professions have professional associations? Just as doctors, lawyers and accountants do, so do we: the IEEE and ACM come most readily to mind.
You're thinking of self-regulating professional body rather than a trade union. Unions fight for pay and working conditions against employers, professional bodies represent the considered opinion of the profession and self-regulate their members, like doctors and barristers.
In the US, while the AMA is technically a trade group and lobbying organization, it's goals/methods are similar to those of a union. It's often referred to as the Doctor's Union.
You don't call it a union, silly. A union is for socialists.
You call it a Professional Association. The same way doctors and accountants do. It's essentially the same as a union, but it's for rich, conservative people.
Doctors have a guild: the AMA. Lawyers have a guild: the ABA. Neither are the same things as unions but they have similar effects. The ABA and AMA also have large roles in professional education. Both also have major roles in accreditation and regulation of the profession. Unlike unions, they do not collectively bargain on behalf of individual workers. They aren't subject to the many regulations associated with organized labor.
They also enjoy broad exemptions to antitrust law which would otherwise apply. It's why other classes of worker cannot have the same type of protective guild -- it's legal when the ABA or AMA do it and illegal when someone else does it.
They're not. Teamsters and American Bar Association are not equivalent organizations. You could definitely argue that a guild and association are basically the same, though.
This is a good point. It is a shame that there aren’t unions organized around professions like pipe fitters, lampworkers, or crane operators. There is no conceptual framework for a non-company union
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