That's very interesting to see the various factors leading IT professionals to get more conscious on their situation (and even unionised):

• Massive layouts (like IBM: 13,000 people worldwide, mostly in Europe)
• More people working at their firm's office (vs. at the client), which favours interactions while these workers were often split on various locations
• More and more pressure and stress (even leading to law suites)
• Threat from outsourcing to low-wages countries
• After the promises of 2000 ("we need 10,000 more IT specialists every year"), executive unemployment in the IT sector today is twice what it is in other sectors.