Alliance@IBM/CWA

About Alliance@ IBM CWA Local 1701

The Alliance is a nationwide union organizing campaign and a membership organization for current employees, former employees and retirees. Our members are involved with a variety of issues from pension changes, off shoring of jobs, workplace concerns, legal issues, and health and safety concerns.
We are the only national IBM employee organization in the United States standing up for employee rights and benefits. We are affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, AFL/CIO. Our goal is to build majority support throughout IBM. With that support we can obtain collective bargaining rights and negotiate legally binding contracts for salaries, benefits and conditions of employment at IBM.

Who can join the Alliance?

Active employees, contractors, temporary employees (such as those in Manpower who work for IBM), and retirees are eligible to join. *Exempt* (salaried) employees are eligible! Sorry, no managers.

What are the categories of membership?

When you click and choose one of these membership categories, you will be linked to our secure server.

Your name is required by law to be kept completely confidential by the Alliance@IBM/CWA. If you want to be a public and active Alliance member, please notify us.

Eighty percent of your dues go to the Alliance organizing activities, such as: office rental, utilities, mailings, office equipment, staffing and flyer /newsletter production.Twenty percent of dues go to the CWA staff, who provide help to us in the form of benefits research and legal advice on employment situations. CWA has already invested many thousands of dollars on our behalf to help us work on the issues that most concern IBM employees.

The Alliance @ IBM is a union, because 'union' simply means an organization of employees who seek to improve their conditions at work. There are however, two simultaneous strategies which the Alliance is pursuing to improve work at IBM. One is to immediately press IBM management, Congress, and the courts to correct injustices at IBM. For example, efforts over the pension plan and overtime policies are two examples of this type of strategy. The second strategy is to build support for collective bargaining which will enable us to eventually win an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board and to ultimately guarantee all our rights and benefits in a legally-binding contract.

Being pro-union is being pro-IBM! We want our company to be successful, and we are not ungrateful or disloyal because we want a voice in our workplace. This company was built on the commitment to the individual employee and respect for employee input. In recent years the balance has shifted from benefits for all company stakeholders -- management, employees, stockholders, suppliers, and the community -- to benefits for only a few. IBM employees make this company what it is, and it is clear that we should have a voice in exchange for our contributions.