A Union for Bloggers? Huh?

My wife Susan sent me a link today and prefaced it with "This is not a joke article from the Onion." That certainly got me curious, so I read the blog posting at Rational Jen that was itself a response to the Forbes.com piece "Bloggers Consider Forming Labor Union" (my friend Chris also mentions this on his new blog here). As a story about bloggers, no doubt this is being much talked about around the Blogosphere -- alas, I don't have time right now to look around for others' comments on this story.

Assuming this isn't a joke, I'll comment on a few bits from the Forbes article:

In a move that might make some people scratch their heads, a loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers are trying to band together to form a labor union they hope will help them receive health insurance, conduct collective bargaining or even set professional standards.

Huh? Who will they receive it from? Who are they going to be collectively bargaining with? They are not employed by anyone! This is bizarre. The only thing I can imagine here, with regard to health insurance premiums, is that a very large number of bloggers banded together in some sort of way that insurers recognized, then they could be considered a "pool" the way large companies are, and this can lower insurance rates somewhat. Is that what they are hoping for? Other than that, I don't know where they are going to be magically given health care from or with whom they plan to bargain collectively.

Organizers hope a bloggers' labor group will not only showcase the growing
professionalism of the Web-based writers, but also the importance of their roles in candidates' campaigns.

Its not clear to me how these benefits will derive from having a union. Again, being as charitable as I can, are they thinking that they will do someting like MSM columnists who have their content aggregated on larger sites and thereby reach an audience they would have difficulty reaching as lone writers? If so, then they should just write for group blogs, or use RSS to aggregate their blog postings on particular sites. I don't see what role a "labor union" will play here.

Others see a blogger coalition as a way to find health insurance discounts, fight for press credentials or even establish guidelines for dealing with advertising and presenting data on page views.

That first issue I addressed above -- I think they must mean the insurance pool idea. I can see the value of press credentials, but can't bloggers just get together and write guidelines for various things? What role does an actual "labor union" play here? Is this just semantics that is throwing me off?

"It would raise the professionalism," said Leslie Robinson, a writer at ColoradoConfidential.com. "Maybe we could get more jobs, bona fide jobs."

How would forming a labor union "raise the professionalism"? And why don't such bloggers -- if they actually want "real" jobs as writers -- go get them? Don't big bloggers love being on the outside of the MSM? Are they now saying they want real jobs as writers afterall? I don't get the desire here, nor how forming a "labor union" is the answer -- afterall, most employers would rather not have to deal with labor unions, not to mention a labor union composed mostly of ultra-leftist folks -- which it seems is mostly the type of bloggers who are interested in forming a "labor union" for bloggers.

"The blogosphere is such a weird term and such a weird idea. It's anyone who wants to do it," Hopkins said. "There's absolutely no commonality there. How will they find a commonality to go on? I think it's doomed to failure on any sort of large scale."

I think what you could get is some banding together of bloggers -- but we already have that. We have group bloggers. We have aggregators. A blogger union on a large scale? Like this person, I don't see it.

Madrak hopes that regardless the form, the labor movement ultimately will help bloggers pay for medical bills. It's important, she said, because some bloggers can spend hours a day tethered to computers as they update their Web sites.

"Blogging is very intense - physically, mentally," she said. "You're constantly scanning for news. You're constantly trying to come up with information that you think will mobilize your readers. In the meantime, you're sitting at a computer and your ass is getting wider and your arm and neck and shoulder are wearing out because you're constantly using a mouse."

Just a thought... maybe you should get some balance in your life then! Its no one's fault but your own if you are "tethered to your computer", if your "ass is getting wider" from sitting too long, and your body is "wearing out because you're constantly using a mouse". Get some exercise! Break up your day with other activities.

If readers of these blogs enjoy their writing so much, then they can help pay for the medical care needed to keep them at their computers 19 hours a day. That is their choice. Put out a special Tip Jar or PayPal button for that purpose! Good luck!