4

3/25/2009 9:15:16 AM

Quote :

"Research Triangle Park, N.C. — Thursday will be a bleak one for Big Blue workers, according to a document obtained by WRAL.com and Local Tech Wire as well as national media reports and Alliance@IBM, the union seeking to represent IBM workers. In RTP, some 300 people will be cut as part of what IBM (NYSE: IBM) calls a “resource action," Alliance@IBM has been told. The union is already labeling March 26 as “Black Thursday.” Wednesday night, an IBM “resource action package” that was provided to WRAL.com and Local Tech Wire showed that 1,674 employees in the Application Services unit of the Global Business Services group would go. Among those being laid off or offered the chance to find jobs elsewhere in the company are 10 vice presidents. The expected layoff total is higher. “(There is a) rumor of 4,000 (people) being fired (plus) off-shoring jobs” Alliance@IBM coordinator Lee Conrad told Local Tech Wire and WRAL.com. A comment section at the union's Web site also contains numerous posts warning about layoffs. The comments are from people who say they work at IBM. An IBM spokesman declined comment. “All I can tell you today is that we don't comment on rumor or speculation,” Doug Shelton, director of IBM Corporate Media Relations in New York, told WRAL.com and LTW Wednesday evening. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Wednesday that IBM is cutting jobs in the global businesses services, or GBS, unit in the U.S. and that the responsibilities will be shifted overseas, including to India. The GBS unit is IBM’s largest, with some 180,000 employees. As the newspaper noted, IBM is off-shoring jobs despite a 12 percent increase in profits in the fourth quarter of 2008 to more than $4.4 billion despite the global recession. IBM also has forecast revenue growth for 2009. Various media outlets also have reported recently that IBM could acquire rival Sun Microsystems in a deal worth some $8 billion. The Journal cited a “person familiar with the situation.” IBM seldom announces or confirms layoffs. Big Blue, which recently cut thousands of jobs in its software, sales, semiconductor and finance work groups, reduced its U.S. work force by 6,000 while adding 18,000 jobs overseas in 2008. Of nearly 400,000 employees, some 115,000 are based in the U.S. “IBM managers have been receiving training from human-resources specialists on handling the layoffs, according to one manager involved in the process,” the newspaper said."

3/26/2009 1:16:36 PM

3 year anniversary at Big Blue today

3/27/2009 12:47:57 PM