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Archive of Vistitors Comments We like to hear from our web site visitors. These are archived comments. We created this to help allieviate the long load time of the original comments page. Please visit our active & current comment sections:
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| Archived Comments We've Received Comment 05/30/09: The current American business paradigm is a Ponzi scheme. The people at the top actually like what's happening, because they figure when they've gotten all the loot they can out of us, their fortunes and the power that comes with it will be that much more of an advantage if the vast majority of us are impoverished and can be ignored or exploited as they wish. From Golden Parachutes to Golden Coffins http://canucwhatic.blogspot.com/ -Maus 1- Comment 05/28/09: I worked in an IT unit and knew of many of the RA's coming down..months before working as an Exec Admin. What is the plan for the Admin Support at IBM? I know of only handful of people still Admins left. Is the TASCOR (think back to the mid 90's) format going to be coming shortly? It is what I predicted back in 2003. So far I have noticed no available Admin spots. I'm on Long Term Disability and could never perform up to IBM Standards. I was a 1 performer for years and now I am unable to return to work; but if I through a miracle became healthy, how would I be handled ? Since there are no high level Admin jobs, would they not have to give me one or would I then be RA'ed as I have seen so many before and friends after me? If anyone could enlighten me on the new IBM Admin Policy I would love to know, in case they refuse me my LTD. Interested. P.S. Sorry for so many of you who lost their jobs it's a shame I was once proud to say I worked at IBM, now I'm apalled. Good Luck. It is better away from the horror that must be in those offices on a daily basis. -Concerned- Comment 05/27/09: Interesting: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20090527/tc_nm/us_ibm_financing_1 -1 2 X U- Comment 05/27/09: Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) , apparently gearing up to launch more merger-and-acquisition activity, has hired David Johnson, IBM’s “top buyout expert,” InformationWeek reported Wednesday. As a result, IBM (NYSE: IBM) filed suit trying to block his departure, InformationWeek’s Paul McDougall added in a story headlined: "Dell Poaches IBM's Top M&A Exec " "The actual and potential corporate transactions as to which Mr. Johnson has knowledge span the entire range of IBM businesses and product lines," IBM said in court papers filed last week, InformationWeek reported. "Among the highly sensitive information Mr. Johnson possesses is, for example, information regarding where and in what companies and technologies IBM will invest, at what times, at what rates of return, as well as information regarding potential divestitures," InformationWeek quoted the papers as saying. -Lost Sheep- Comment 05/26/09: Now that political unrest is coming to India, let's see what the executive shits do for an encore. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/world/asia/26india.html?_r=1 -Serves 'em Right- Comment 05/25/09: Regarding Palmisano's severance if he gets fired, something to keep in mind is that his severance check would probably be more than your TOTAL LIFETIME SALARY! Employees NEED to join the Alliance simply to protect their hard earned money. When I was laid off last year, my manager verified that I was going to earn the full 26 weeks of severence pay. However, payroll robbed me of 7 weeks of that pay even though I was a full-time employee because I didn't transfer into Division 7 until 1999. My manager agreed that it was the most dishonest thing he has ever witnessed done to an employee. Bottom line: If you don't have a contract like IBM's executives, the company can put you over a barrel whenever and however they want. -StillSore- Comment 05/25/09: Talking about aircraft, according to the FAA, IBM has 8 aircraft which includes 1 Sikorsky helicopter and Mooney M20 single engine aircraft based in Tampa, Florida. The rest are jets based out of Westchester County Airport, Does IBM really need a small air force? http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/nameSQL.asp?nametxt=IBM&cmndfind.x=0&cmndfind.y=0&sort_option=5 -RTP Guy- Comment 05/24/09: Regarding Alliance statement, "The CEO is there for as long as his/her contract stipulates." Exactly. Palmisano isn't an at-will employee - he has a CONTRACT with plenty of negotiated guaranteed benefits and retirement. Do you? And you can bet if he gets 'resourced' (fired) his severance is a lot more than 6 mos' pay. -annonymous- Comment 05/24/09: In regard to waiting. I waited. Ducked the axe and hung on till I got my 30 and my defined pension. I do not understand why folks with just the 401k hang on and put up with IBM's crap. It is really not that special a 401K. Most employers offer similar. There is virtually no medical coverage through IBM to retirees as they jack the price so high you can buy better coverage cheaper through Carefirst on your own. I cannot understand why the newer folks are not organizing IBM to make their own lives better . Forget the how it used to be. Forget lost benefits that will never be regained. Negotiate new benefits. New pension rules. New retiree health care. New overtime rules. New standby pay. New appraisal rules. New layoff and right to recall rules. I could understand if any of the benefits were outstanding why someone Might put up with more crap from IBM management but NONE are outstanding anymore. They have actually become less then mediocre. Unless you are an executive with a contract of course. Life does not have to be as complicated as IBM makes it. Pensions can be as simple as $50.00 per month for each year of service. Don't need a degree in math to figger that one out. Therefore you cant be cheated . I do not believe any IBMer is looking for a free ride. We are all smart enough to understand that will not happen. But we also need to be smart enough to say stop when we are getting cheated. Nothing says stop like a legal contract. -Exodus2007- Comment 05/24/09: As we can impeach a president in the US, is there anyway we can force a vote to impeach a CEO? -anon in RTP- Alliance Reply: The quick answer is No, if you mean "We" as employees. You misunderstand how a corporation works vs. a government. The CEO is there for as long as his/her contract stipulates. The longer answer is: Yes, if "We" stockholders revolt and petition the BOD to assign or elect a new CEO. One caveat is that IBM executives and anti-labor elements own the majority of the stock. It's simple math. A stockholder action like this almost NEVER happens in the corporate world for a variety of reasons; usually because there are no issues that inflame the stockhoders like issues that inflame the employees. The employees really have only two choices: a) Stay and grow the union membership, organize and fight and win a union contract. b) Quit. You can add up all the "individual fights" that have occurred where individuals won over IBM in the last 15 years; but at the end of the day, collectively, IBM wins when the collective employees refuse to fight. Comment 05/24/09: Dr. King said: “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait.’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ ” It bears repeating until you all realize that our civil rights are not waiting for us like a plane on a runway. We need to get angry, and activist, again. -Unite Now!!!- Comment 05/23/09: Hey -Anon-y-mouse- Any chance that forcing those folks to a New York office would push just enough NY headcount to continue the tax breaks? Don't think logical, Think devious and greedy. More tax breaks, Bigger executive bonus money. -Exodus2007- Comment 05/23/09: -Anon-y-mouse- Simple. Financial Analysis = bean counting in IBM's creative accounting. Increasing Financial Analysts positions means more cost controls, cost cutting, offshoring. -movedacheez- Comment 05/23/09: About "Smarter Planet". Since Sam is an a$$ of an CEO now he fancies himself also as an economist? Geez let me barf! -BetterPlanet- Comment 05/23/09: To>>-Frank- >>How does e intend to do it? -- BUY IT and kill yet another fast growing independent company. -no-ky- Comment 05/23/09: Hypocrisy is the kool-aid of the 21st century... and IBM cannot stop making it and drinking it. Go union and make good ole lemonade..like they say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Go Alliance! (Yes, I donate $$ to the Alliance, if you'd like to know). -Synonymous- Comment 05/22/09: How is Sam going to implement this "Smarter Planet" stuff, when he's dumping the highly experienced, highly trained and very smart US professional employees in lieu of inexperienced, uneducated, ill-trained, el-cheapo, temporary morons offshore? Nothing like hypocrisy, eh, Sam? -Frank- Comment 05/22/09: Has anyone noticed the large number of Financial Analyst jobs - those that report into Loughridge - opening on the Job Post system this past month (like 10-20) but that they all require the work to be done at an IBM office in Somers, Armonk, or one of the other Westchester County locations? What's up with that? Since when did Financial Analysis work need to be done "face to face"? And why all these openings? Are they making all the remote, work from home FAs (worklife balance) make the choice to work from an office or sianara? Something is UP with this, I don't know what yet. -Anon-y-mouse- Comment 05/22/09: -indian_ibmer- Yes, seems like IBM is replacing Indians with more Chinese and supplemented by Brazilians now more than ever. Compared to Indians, the Chinese are much cheaper and Brazilians are cheap as well since their economy is always in at least a recession with sky high inflation. IBM is only using resources (work units) in countries when they remain dirt cheap. Once they find a cheaper venue they direct their recruiting and hiring efforts there. I suspect we will soon see IBM hiring in Africa. The Africans are cheaper than the Chinese as a work resource. Join the Alliance since it is aligned with the rest of the globes unions to stop corporations from exploiting global workers. -anotherBRIC- Comment 05/22/09: You IBM people need to let them have a piece of your mind! Just tell it like it is and stand up for something. So stand up and fight for something instead of taking it! -Mike- Comment 05/21/09: IBM's comeuppance is on its way... I suggest that all current and former employees move the funds in their 401Ks, pensions, and ESPPs out of IBM stock. There is going to be a backlash once the ramifications of IBMs move to GDFs and GDCs is felt by their customers. There is a current upswing based upon their smoke-and-mirrors movement of funds between buckets in their accounting depts, but in the end there will be a fallout after accounts are closed, the Oracle/Sun alliance succeeds, etc. The stock results that we are seeing are purely short term. There is no long term plan, or they would not be dumping their most experienced employees overboard. -Pickles- Comment 05/21/09: "Is good to see the religious community waking up to the blind greed of corporations destroying this country. 1% of the population now controls 70% of the wealth." The government controls the wealth now. -anonymouse- Comment 05/21/09: To -soon to be gone- : There are a huge number like you. They are not yet affected by the RAs but have seen others get thrown out while they get no raises, promotions, or opportunities. You can either leave IBM ASAP (and find another company that appreciates your skills and experience), you can sit and stew over your situation, or you can step up and help organize the workers. For the rest of you out there, what are you going to do? If you just sit around and wallow in your troubles, it is not helping. You can get out and find something better, or you can make a difference. But watch out: you may face this same situation down the line if we let the executives have all the profits and benefits from a positive quarter or year. Either the skilled workers will find themselves valued elsewhere or they will have to take action. Keeping your mouth shut and hoping for the best is obviously not working. Playing their game and hoping that giving in to the flow is not going to save you once they figure out that you cost too much. Take a stand here or get stomped upon; then wait for them to stomp upon you again at your next job. I hope that -soon to be gone- is successful in his/her new endeavor, but you need to stay vigilant. IBM has proven that hard work and dedication does not lead to a share of the rewards. -SickOfItAll- Comment 05/21/09: -Take Time = IBM's Preperation For Cheaper Slaughter?- I think you are right. Your calculation for NYS unemployment is done that way. With 1/3 pay for just a bit when "Taking Time" you might then get less than the $405 + $25 fed. kick which is the max. for NYS after you are RA'ed. The same applies for different states I believe. IBM treats us like naive IDIOTS. They figure folks are gullible enough to consider that this Take Time is a sincere program: a new employee BENEFIT. Employees in IBM will no longer see new real benefits unless they organize for them. Always remember IBM's old motto that Watson made: THINK. Now with the Watson's long gone better yet THINK TWICE. -anonymous- Comment 05/21/09: soon to be gone: Why give 2wks to this IBM? Just leave now. You'll get nothing more for yourself by giving them 2wks but you can bet they will work you worse than a flea bitten abused dog for those 2wks. -anonymous- Comment 05/20/09: Won't those who participate in the "Take Time" offer of 1/3 less pay during the summer be lowering their base salary, so that if they get laid off in September their unemployment payment will be much lower? I believe unemployment compensation only looks at the last 3-6 months to establish a person's benefit rate. IBM pays the first 6 months of unemployment compensation, not the state (in NY). -Take Time = IBM's Preperation For Cheaper Slaughter?- Comment 05/20/09: Heard that IBM in India is going to layoff couple of thousands, wanted to check on the authenticity of this info. Any inputs would help -indian_ibmer- Comment 05/20/09: I was RA'd in February, and had a few painful interviews because I was not up-to-date on the latest web technologies. Last week I took a great class from InferData on Web 2.0 - offered at a reduced price for unemployed folks. Even though I still can't claim expertise, at least now I can talk more intelligently during interviews. I asked InferData if they planned to continue with the discount, and they sent me the following info: Heavily Discounted Training for Ex-IBM Employees If you are an IBM employee affected by the resource action, you are eligible for discounted training of 50% with InferData. InferData has several courses covering the latest technologies such as AJAX, Web 2.0, Flex, EJB 3.0, JEE, Web Services, Hibernate and much more. You may find the list of courses at http://www.inferdata.com/training/big-blue-special.html. All the classes listed at this link are delivered both in instructor-led classroom format and virtual instructor-led online format (for those who cannot travel to the class location). The prices on the page reflect the list price and your 50% discount will be applied at the time of registration - use the code IBMALL in the comment section. To register by phone, or to get more information, you may call Ms. Cathleen Wang (cwang@inferdata.com) at 512.306.8225. This offer is valid till August 31st, 2009. -anonymous- Comment 05/20/09: I just accepted a job offer for a nice secure fed job. When the background check clears I'll be giving my 2wks. Got back what I lost with the 15% pay remix (CUT) + a nice signing bonus. I have to drive into an office now but I've been wanting to do that for awhile now. I just can't stay here at IBM anymore. Friends getting let go an myself with a potential move to GDF for a job as that is where my account is headed "off the record" of course. Been an okay almost 8 years with the last 4 with nothing but stress year after year. Good luck to all that remain. I was so excited when I joined IBM but after constant 2 and 2+ ratings I keep getting smoke blown into my face about moving to a band 8. No future here anymore for hard working folks. -soon to be gone- Comment 05/19/09: This is saying what many of us here, have said since before 2000. Good read. http://blog.usw.org/2009/05/19/build-more-autos-overseas-marginalize-more-us-families/ Wake up before you starve to death! -Synonymous- Comment 05/17/09: If I Take Time at 1/3 pay it pays for me just like I was getting unemployment pay in New York State! Gee, IBM is this what you are insinuating by this Take Time thing? -anonymous- Comment 05/16/09: Is good to see the religious community waking up to the blind greed of corporations destroying this country. 1% of the population now controls 70% of the wealth. We forgotten the lessons of history. Plato long ago said "all empires end for the same reason, wealth disparity". We're certainly there and now the top 1% or 1/10 of 1% is raping the financial system of the last 30%. The bailouts of the fat cats is coming out of pension funds and other retirement holdings that will never be coming back... stand up or be wiped out! Warehouse workers fight Wal-Mart's anti-worker agenda; clergy members and warehouse workers arrested "Greed has become the rule of thumb in our unjust society. Here we have the injustice of degrading salaries and denying the workers' right to be members of a union. Unions are a necessity due to the injustice and exploitation by the Corporations upon the workers," said Father Pat Guillen, who was arrested at the protest. "Jesus broke bread and shared the cup with His disciples. We demand that the employers also share the cup of production, created by the workers and break the bread of exploitation and injustice, created by the grid of the corporations; for when injustice is present, there cannot be -corporate-greed-destroying-USA- Comment 05/15/09: Posted on Vault: Do the numbers really add up? May 15, 2009 7:08 PM EST I need help. My mind is too constrained to answer the following case-study question: IBM brass told the stock analysts earlier this week that even with a 7% drop in revenue in 2009, an EPS of $9.10 was still expected. So let's do some math: Assuming the 7% drop, revenue in 2009 would drop from $103.6b to $96.3b. But to keep an EPS of $9.10, gross expense (revenue - earnings) would have to drop from $91.5b to $84.7b (I assumed a buyback of 75m shares, typical for recent years, but the calculation is not too sensitive to share buyback, unless the stock involved back is truly huge.) So in effect, IBM is predicting a huge decrease in gross expense. But $6.8b? Not even huge US layoffs much larger than what we have seen so far would save that kind of money in 2009. Fantastic jumps in software and services margins? Doubtful to me. Can somebody show me how to pull this rabbit out of the hat? -wonderaboutibm- Comment 05/15/09: So, is IBM receiving the 65% subsidy from DOL and then NOT passing the savings on to fired employees? Or am I reading this wrong. -an alliance member- Comment 05/15/09: How can IBM call you "retired" when they RA you before you are 55 years old with 15 years of employment therefore giving you no FHA? The FHA was supposedly set up as a pittance health insurance plan for IBM retirees. The IBM group health plan was for those that were cheated out of the FHA and being truly retirement eligible. This company then fights COBRA and the subsidy to cost cut some more on the backs of it's former employees..IBM, you filthy greedy, immoral, thieving bastards, to force RA someone and then the friggin nerve to say the forced RA'ed person is retired shows IBM has no conscience. -anonymous- Comment 05/15/09: Are you a military reservist who has been resource actioned? Contact the Alliance at: ibmunionalliance@gmail.com -Alliance- Comment 05/15/09: The "Take Time" program will not be done in lieu of more RA's. "Take Time" will mean IBM can save some more money on the backs of those taking it. It'll take time but even those folks who took the time will also be RA'ed. -anonymous- Comment 05/14/09: I saw this article and it is interesting reading: http://localtechwire.com/business/local_tech_wire/news/story/5144532/ -BlownAway- Comment 05/13/09: Any significance for 5/8/2009?: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=IBM Maybe this is the options the IBM pigs get after the shareholder's meeting or after the latest RA's which were completed on 4/27/2009(?) -anonymous- Comment 05/12/09: Just a comment to you guys since I know you are working hard to get the Alliance name out there. How about an entry on Wikipedia? A search on Alliance@IBM turns up alliances IBM has with others... It would be better if those who are curious and used that as an informational tool saw information about the union instead. -something to think about- Alliance reply: Yes, thanks. I have created a new wiki account; but haven't setup a page yet. Please send your suggestions and maybe some helpful shortcuts on how best to put the page together. You didn't leave an email, so the only way I could respond was through this reply. You can send a private message to me here: Webmaster Thanks again for your suggestion. P.S. I'd also like to know if you have seen any "tweets" that we have made in the last two weeks? Comment 05/12/09: "all of my benefits would be paid for by IBM and that I would just about have nothing to worry about for the rest of my retired life" For Sam and his posse YES this is still true. But for the rest of us it's all a big lie. -anonymous- Comment 05/12/09: -www.ibmemployee.com- Yes, I too, was told that my defined benefit pension and paid retirement medical for life was part of my overall compensation and total IBM benefits that I could count on for my retirement planning. Wouldn't it be great if we had all this in WRITING somewhere!? Then we can undeniably prove a broken promise made by this IBM. I wish I had a copy of my initial employment papers from IBM. Anyone out there have something like this? -anonymous- Comment 05/10/09: The following message was sent to the editor of www.ibmemployee.com: I took the line near the bottom of this email out of the recent "News Highlights" and I want to comment upon it ... I retired nearly 20-years ago. At that time, a "personnel specialist" informed me that, upon retirement, all of my benefits would be paid for by IBM and that I would just about have nothing to worry about for the rest of my retired life. What happened? None of that has come true. Each year my contribution to my various health care programs increases and caring for my wife's health programs has become almost prohibitive. No cost of living increases to help us out, either. I find it very sad that IBM went from one of the very best companies to just another one in the crowd of mush-companies that we all used to feel sorry for. I'm glad that IBM is doing well as a company, however, it has certainly lost sight of how it got to where it is --- on the backs of its very, very devoted employees. Now it's the whip and chair method for its workers, I guess --- and retirees are "out of sight, out of mind". -www.ibmemployee.com- Comment 05/09/09: to anonymous of "Just heard that In Fishkill no one below a 2+ will get one" I've heard some PBC "2+" will not get one either. My manager says the "remainder of the year is going to be rough" so that becomes a reason I guess. -anonymous- Comment 05/09/09: An IBM stock watcher, Robert Djurdjevic of Annex Research, says he "..doesn't hear of any disgruntled IBMers.."Either he gets some of the IBM Armonk kool-aid from Sam or falls for the IBM spin. Has he seen this website? -anonymous- Comment 05/09/09: It has not been mentioned lately, so I will bring it up once again: I encourage all IBM employees (current and former) to head over to http://www.glassdoor.com and write up an honest assessment of your experience working for IBM. There are sub-divisions for Global Services, Systems and Technology, and other groups/countries. I cannot say how many people check these sites to gauge a company before applying or accepting an offer, but it certainly could only help in letting people know how you have been treated. It is another tool for the workers, as companies may find that their actions have consequences when eventually the most talented people have the information to help them decide which employer deserves to benefit from their efforts. A company's actions can only soil its reputation if the word gets out. Just tell the truth and avoid unhelpful rants, as the reality of how things have changed over the last ten years is powerful enough. -MuffinMan- Comment 05/08/09: FYI: My wife just received this email: 2009 Summary of Material Modifications for XXX Benefit Plans Here's the note at the bottom: (Note: If you are a member of a collective bargaining unit, not all of the information in this document may apply to you. Please see your facility's Human Resources department for details.) ------------------ too bad there's a union - I guess those folks don't receive the "enhancements". -Neal Watkins- Comment 05/08/09: Sam said there would be 250,000 who would get raises this year.. Just heard that In Fishkill no one below a 2+ will get one.. Wounder if that is across the board? If you do the math, it is possible that no one in the US will get a raise if below a 2+ because there are 330,000 workers world wide, and less then 130,000 in the US. So every one out side the US is a 2+ or better and maybe a few in the US. If you take out management, then the numbers are even more revealing: http://video.msn.com/dw.aspx?mkt=en-us&from=truveo&vid=2824b236-421d-4c47-8a24-990ce4a969bc Ich Bin Muede -Anonymous- Comment 05/08/09: The comments about the new corporate jets must be true. That or we're seeing just how cheap these bastards are becoming. The IBM Innovation Center in Waltham is having some rooms repainted. We've heard IBM is buying the paint, but the employees are being required to paint it. I wonder if Sam had to paint his office. -anonymous- Comment 05/07/09: -Think- Sam is that VALUABLE? Nice to know IBM thinks he is almost a god or something. It's a joke that they compensate him so lavishly. Imagine if they could replace him with a CEO from either Brazil, Russia, India, China. The money the company could save and also get a more better educated and skilled CEO since Sam is a product of the failing USA education system that can't compete in the global economy for needed skills and talent! -anonymous- Comment 05/06/09: Did anyone else notice that Sam Palmisano's 2008 comp and benefits package totalled about 0.17% of IBM's profits that year? Sam received about $21M and IBM profits were $12.3B. (Figures taken from the MC Press Online article). Anyone know if this is an unusually high percentage, or is this just the way things are these days? -Think- Comment 05/06/09: To corporations rotate employees like depreciable assets: Real estate owners have for years bought a piece of property, like a shopping mall, held it until they fully depreciate, and then dispose of the property to another real estate investor to begin the depreciation cycle again. Today the same thing is being done with employees, but the employees are disposed of when their depreciation is depleted, i.e., their salary reaches a certain undesirable level. The employee then searches for another job, goes to another company and starts again at a lower salary, ad works their way up to when their depreciation value depletes again, etc. This is a way to compete with companies that are new, have no retired employees to pay out to, have no pension programs set up for new or existing employees, have lesser medical insurance programs, and generally much lower overhead like the old school companies that, as I understand it, had to offer these benefits after WW II to attract employees. -Anonymous- Comment 05/06/09: Alliance drive to grow membership by 200. This is more than reasonable. I would like to see it grow more than 200! A few thousand would be great based on how many visits this site gets. -GoAllianceGo- Comment 05/06/09: Some links on IBM's Business Analytics....in Business Week. Is it safe to assume the folks who submitted the patent on offshoring are in this group? http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090414_322525.htm an older article here, also posted on home page: <link> some recent reader comments here: <link> -Think- Comment 05/05/09: To anon: Because companies don't reduce what they charge for outsourced services. They price it on American heads and then send the contract, the work and the jobs overseas to do it cheaper. The 'profits' sit overseas untaxed and repatriate them piecemeal (at 5% tax) - mostly to pay $20M salaries of execs. In the meantime, Americans lose their jobs and the companies who think they are saving money by outsourcing to a big IT firm get hosed in the meantime. Read this. It's the best synposis I've read on how they do it. http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle/articleid/3218065 -annonymous- Comment 05/05/09: Can I collect unemployment in California if I am eligeble for retirement? -Anonymous- Comment 05/05/09: You can tell how IBM views the people that get their paychecks: They use terms like resource action, workforce rebalancing, and the one that says the most, FTE. For those who are not part of IBM and reading these messages, FTE stands for "Full Time Equivalent." This is a term that has been used for years within IBM instead of saying worker, employee, etc. When they can increase headcount in a team, they say that they have been allocated another FTE. Talking about headcount implies that they have a head, which would make them sound human. IBM's workers are not a valued resource, they are numbers on a chart that have associated financial implications to the company with their salary, benefits, retirement, and need for costly items in an office such as chairs, electricity, and heat. You are not defined by the skills and experience that you have. Your PBC rating is arbitrary. You are an FTE, and you cost too much money. There are people in other countries that don't need the same salary, and they don't require benefits of the same nature. As for the minimum number of people required in the USA, they'll take care of that with the Band 3 people they bring in new to the GDFs. Those folks will gladly sign up for the jobs, what with unemployment being so high and the economy in this state. But hey, without an employment contract, we are free. Free to have them do whatever they wish to us. -Pickles- Comment 05/04/09: To AmEx_favors_EDS: AMEX kicked ibm out of the entire contract or just portions. IBM is too expensive. That can only mean, IBM will ramp up off-shoring of our jobs so they can continue to drive their costs down. -oh-boy- Comment 05/04/09: Happy 10th Birthday!!! The article is not so supportive but the readers comments are! http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090503/BUSINESS01/905030343/1012/business01 -Happy 10th Birthday- Comment 05/04/09: To AmEx_favors_EDS: Is the entire AMEX account going away? My department has about 20 people that support websphere for this account. This is scary news. -Mike@home- Comment 05/04/09: Lets not forget something people. Hurting CEO's or any other executives or corporations paying higher taxes does NOTHING to help us. Only by organizing into a union shop do we gain anything. Higher corporate taxes does not mean we will pay lower taxes. It probably means we will pay more for goods and services we aquire from companies with overseas tax shelters as they will just raise the price of their goods and services to their end consumers. Just like food stores raised their prices to cover their higher fuel costs, and airlines etc etc. Untill we are organized and have cost of living raises in our contracts everything will go up exept our buying power. Be careful what you wish for. -Exodus2007- Comment 05/04/09: A good piece on how corporate executives hurt workers' pensions while padding their own. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/05/who-ran-away-your-401k -Think- Comment 05/04/09: Did anyone read the article in last week's Business Week that mentioned IBM layoffs? The article said there is a skills and knowledge mismatch between US employees and those sought by employers. The section on IBM says that IBM wants to become a company specializing in "analytics," and therefore does not need the skills of much of its current workforce. If someone can find the link to that article online and flood them with letters to the editor, that would so make my day. -lookout- Comment 05/04/09: Can someone help me understand if we've cut costs, moved our services to the BRIC countries to reduce costs, how are still too expensive and keep losing key accounts? It's not like the worker bees are making huge sums of money. -anon- Comment 05/04/09: EETimes opinion piece: "IBM should come clean on engineering layoffs" http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217201056&pgno=1 -Think- Alliance reply: Yes, thanks. We have already posted this on our front page, in the Articles section right column. Comment 05/04/09: Does IBM now de-corporate in the USA and move from Armonk, NY USA to somewhere in Brazil, Russia, India, China or maybe Switzerland or some other rouge tax shelter country like the Caymen Islands and re-corporate there in response to Pres. Obama's tax reform on offshore operations? After all IBM chants they are a global company -anonymous- Comment 05/04/09: -AmEx_favors_EDS- Not surprised. From what I heard AmEx dropped T&E from the IBM expense reporting offer they had signed up for. Maybe they are dropping it all from IBM. Let's see how much balls Sam Parmesano has with his IBM Board buddy Chenault. After all who does IBM do business with for corporate credit card services? I say, bring back Diner's Club or go with VISA now. -anonymous- Comment 05/04/09: -Brian- I agreed with you but IBM will take it out on US employees in response to what the President has just outlined. You can bet Slammy Palmicrapo will see to it. The only way we can WIN is to organize and get a union. Otherwise IBM will always find a way to win over us, whether by fair means or not. -anonymous- Comment 05/04/09: Now with President Obama's recent announcement of offshore operations tax shelters that IBM undoubtably uses we will undoubtably see more USA RA's than IBM might have planned. IBM is hell bent on making that 2010 earnings per share and will stop at nothing to get there so Sam, Randy, Mike Daniels, and Ginny "AIG" get their windfalls. And those that don't get selected for RA don't be surprised if the raises for 2009 get cut in response. Folks we need to unionize now to protect whatever is left for us in IBM before it all disappears. -anonymous- Comment 05/04/09: While not yet signed into law, this is encouraging news. To me, it demonstrates that the new administration understands some of the issues with the current status quo. Would you please post the link on the home page, rather than as my individual comment, IF you think it's newsworthy? Thanks! http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/04/news/economy/obama_corporate_tax_proposals/index.htm?postversion=2009050411 -encouraging news?- Alliance reply: Yes, thanks. We wil post it on the front page, articles section as well. Comment 05/04/09: Had dinner with an American Express IT manager this weekend. He informed me that they just kicked IBM to the curb in favor of EDS. He said it was due to cost. Thanks to corporate greed, IBM is in decline. -AmEx_favors_EDS- Comment 05/04/09: I hope the legislation that Obama is bringing out today will hurt IBM in a great way. It's time for the president or someone with alot of power to stand up to Sam and these other greedy CEO's and keep the money in the U.S. or make them pay very high taxes for doing business in other countries. Thank God. -Brian- Comment 05/02/09: Discussion between two IBM HR executives? http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComick.mpl?date=20090502&name=Mgoose -Oarsman- Comment 05/02/09: Interesting comparison between IBM and housing developers. "I hate to keep picking on IBM, but they are so obvious and blatant in what they do. It reminds me of some of these large home builders that buy property for large planned communities. The property is peppered with stately, grand, mature trees providing appeal, shade and dignity to the site. But the builder comes in with a bulldozer and knocks everything down and plants cheap, immature saplings..." http://hrside.blogspot.com/ -Think- Comment 05/01/09: I found this in the IBM Employees Yahoo groups. I'm not aware of the source, but it's interesting reading if it's true. I wanted to share it with all of you. ************* IBM Diverts College and University Grants from US to India During Recession IBM
Corp. has granted its Shared University Research (SUR) awards to the
International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad (IIIT-H),
the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad (ISB-H) and the SP Jain Management
Institute and Research (SPJMIR) in Mumbai. The awards total $210,000
in research funding targeted for areas of mutual interest. SUR aims
to connect university researchers with IBM experts in similar fields
of work, according to the company. It has the following focus areas
for each institute: Comment 04/30/09: to Historia - you obviously didn't read the articles. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gFANCr5JsEpYmKGCav34DiqGvougD97EKHS87 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/25/AR2009042502494.html -annonymous- Comment 04/30/09: things have gone QUIETLY since then, read on ibm's very own website: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/1388.wss -Anon- Comment 04/30/09: WWTWD? At the very worst now we would still have some sort of IBM contribution to a pension plan along with a better 401k, better retiree healthcare and at least job sharing, a reduction in hours worked, or maybe at worst an across the board pay cut including the IBM executives taking the biggest cut of all. No RA's. Also, USA employees would not lose their jobs to the BRIC's. Watson Jr. would have grown business in the the BRIC's for sure but not at the USA, Canada, or Western Europe employee expense. But this present IBM leadership is not moral. It is greedy and bigoted. It doesn't look over the horizon: it just looks at it. -betterIBM- Comment 04/30/09: -Think- As long as gullible, sheepish employees pay for these things out of their own pockets then companies and corporations will continue to do these things. -anonymous- Comment 04/30/09: "IBM is currently defendant in an international lawsuit related to role in Apartheid" IBM quit doing business with South Africa because of Apartheid. Only since the 1980's have they resumed doing business in South Africa. -historia- Alliance reply: IBM did not quit doing business in South Africa because they were against Aparthied. They quit because of worldwide pressure to stop selling mainframe systems to South Africa; because their fear was that it would hurt IBM's bottom line. Here are two links, the first one is "The Use of Computers to Support Oppression" and the second is a link to a flyer that Alliance@IBM's predecessor, IBM Workers United published in 1977 regarding IBM's role in South Africa. As an eerie side note: The "IBM and the Holocaust" story was not yet written and published...... but the question was raised in 1977, by the IBM Workers United flyer... check it out. Comment 04/30/09: Very intersting. I think all the noise by the alliance and employees over IBM getting stimulus money while cutting jobs might have helped here. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/ibm-pledges-2-billion-for-economic-recovery-funding-gap/?hp -xbeamer- Comment 04/30/09: Before you elevate image of the Watsons to sainthood, better check history of IBM role in Nazi Germany under CEO TJW. And, IBM is currently defendant in an international lawsuit related to role in Apartheid (I believe TJWjr. then ceo). See for yourself on Wikipedia or google News on either topic. You'll find the dark record on human rights. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202429769165&pos=ataglance http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2009/04/23_apartheid.html http://www.ibmandtheholocaust.com/home.php http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/18673/
-annonymous- Comment 04/30/09: IBM isn't the only company that forces employees to pay for so-called "business-related" expenses. An extreme recent example: A family member in California was required to buy a car after hers died, because the owner of the small business where she worked required her to pick up his breakfast and lunch. To make matters worse, a matter of months after she bought a car, she was offered the option of a 33% pay cut or being laid off. To seek employment elsewhere, she left the state and lost any unemployment benefits. Triple whammy, and apparently no basis to file charges against her former employer. -Think- Comment 04/29/09: When looking at what IBM management has done over the last few years it would be interesting if there was a WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) slant as in WWTWD (as in what would The Watsons Do) and no question they would not eliminate most employee and retiree benefits and turn IBM in just another company run by greedy execs. Lou G was an outsider, so he had an excuse and a track record, Sam has no excuse, as he came up through the IBM ranks and saw what a family atmosphere and respect for the individual could do. Shame on Sam. -Frank- Comment 04/29/09: to anonymous: fred is correct. you are the one with the fuzzy thinking. no longer reimbursing an employee for a business expense and requiring the employee to pay for it is equivalent to a pay cut. i had home internet service but was required to upgrade it to support ibm's requirements. so that was clearly not for my use but for ibms. this is one more example of ibm upping the pressure on employees. the goal is to get more employees to quit without having to pay them severence. remember any job that can be done from home can be done from india. Ibm's goal is transition that work as soon and as cheaply as possible. if more employees leave now , ibm will LOVE IT!!! everyone that can should move back to and increase their visibility to other employees so when they are fired more people notice. not like the secrets cuts going on all the time now. -ex beamer- Alliance reply: And help us organize the GDF sites. Comment 04/29/09: to -fred- You're not thinking very well, Expense reimbursements are NOT part of your friggin base pay, so in no way is it a pay cut. And despite the real reason behind it, IBM's pretty much correct in their offical statement - most households have internet access for personal use (just like they have electricity and plumbing - IBM doesn't pay for that for you, do they?) and the reimbursement policy was old and outdated. Working out of an office isn't going make anything worse for IBM, if anything, you'll be an employee that's costing too much and bumped up on the RA list. -anonymous- Comment 04/29/09: to You do the math. -fred- Yeah, I'll do the math. It'll most likely cost you more than $50/month in gas to commute to an office. Assuming you have oil changes every 3 months, that frequency will increase as well, not to mention general wear and tear on the car. Plus the cost of eating lunch, unless you brown bag it. It's still cost effective to not commute to an office. -anonymous- Comment 04/29/09: What a laugh. IBM doesn't like to be called greedy. http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=R1R1YPP0MRJ3SQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=217200433 -member- Comment 04/29/09: IBM as a company has Jumped the Shark! It has NO innovation, except for Outsourcing and cost cutting. Folks, face it - there is only a few things you can do, a) Unionize, b) Quit, c) Stay, bend down and take it. PS: Naming its Jeopardy computer 'Watson' is a slap in the face to us IBM oldtimers -Whatever- Comment 04/29/09: Sam says lets fix the US infrastructure, or in laymans terms the Internet. Great for everyone in the USA. Oh Wait....it also happens to make it easier and faster for someone outside of the US to provide support to computers located within the US..More jobs overseas.... bye bye -anonymous- Comment 04/29/09: From mid 1990's-2007 (the Gerstner-Palmisano empire) IBM bought back over $94,000,000,000 worth of shares of its own stock at an average of $67 each. Now how is that a sound investment? It sounds to me that IBM has lost some money in these acquisitions? No real stink about it at the stockholders meeting in Miami as well I'm sure. Now IBM still decides to throw another $3,000,000,000 more at it. With those buybacks the IBM executives have and will continue to reap millions and billions as well in stock bonuses and awards that they hardly really deserve. -anonymous- Comment 04/29/09: Ibm has recently decided to not pay for internet access for employee that access IBM thru the internet. This "benefit" was 50.00 a month. Which totals to 600 yr.. and to spend 600 you need to make at least 900.00... so its an across the GLOBE , 1K pay cut for every employee. Interesting it costs 700 month to house an employee at a mobile site, and 4K a year to provide a permanent office... We have the option to "GO BACK to WORK" I have elected to go into the office... Cost 4K * 12 = 48K . You do the math. -fred- Alliance reply: Just curious, Why multiple $4K by 12? Isn't the $4k a yearly figure, and not a monthly figure? What am I missing? Comment 04/27/09: ok -retired- answer this question: Do you think Alliance@IBM should continue to post your comments, if you are pro-management and have not joined Alliance or become a supporter by either a donation or membership dues of $5 dollars or $10 dollars a month? If you think so, then my advice to Alliance is to stop posting your "helpful" comments. The reason is clear: Members and supporters pay money for these comment sections to exist. My guess would be that they DON'T want ex-managers from IBM giving them the kind of advice you have. So...why not stop coming here? Do us all the favor. To Alliance: can't you refuse to post this person's comments? Don't you have a mechanism to recognize this person or distinguish their location? Thank you Alliance, for the opportunity to be here and support your organization. I have donated in the past and appreciate the work you are doing. -Retiredbutnotbrainwashed- Comment 04/27/09: To -retired- If you can volunteer to be RA'ed, then why doesn't IBM make it easier for the employee and manager and offer a voluntary package now? My management says the recent RA'ed folks were not selected by their direct report first line manager. Other business considerations, management levels (likely from HR direction) make the RA decision. That is the reason IBM doesn't offer any voluntary packages anymore. You can't say "pick me" to your manager to make sure you can get RA'ed. -anonymous- Comment 04/27/09: http://www.lohud.com/article/20090426/BUSINESS01/904260333 -lookout- Alliance reply: One clarification: we still hand out flyers at certain plant sites, but with more and more employees working from home offices we find we can target employee e-mails with our message better. Comment 04/26/09: I do know someone who " Volunteered" to be RA'd. He was the managers number one butt kisser and when he was going to retire the manager told him hang around a few more months and I will RA you so you get 6 months severance pay to leave. He did and got a healthy check as a going away present. I suspect a manager would still do this for a P.A.L. -Exodus2007- Comment 04/25/09: -retired- Keep posting bro'. I need the cathartic laff. The more you post the more your a laff. Your a joke and you still post about it! -makemelaff- Comment 04/25/09: -Retiredbutnotbrainwashed- i'm just trying to offer my past experiance and knowledge on these difficult times. retired a few years ago and still somewhat in the loop so if i can give any know how on ra's , salary , promotions , ranking , pbc's,etc i'll help. knowledge is power. ps the name change was for you good luck everyone... -anon- i mentioned if you wanted to get ra'ed you could. the question is do you have a relationship with your manager that you can talk to him and tell him you want to be ra'ed.usually managers like volunteers because it takes the pain out of making the selection of who has to go next. this has been done plenty of times. you don't want to slack off because you might get fired outright for performance and that is not the way to go. i have done this in the past and has not been a problem.even had a situation where the employee came in and told me he had another job but wanted to get ra'ed to collect. done. take care and good luck -retired- Comment 04/25/09: Hey -anynameuwant-: Why did you change your name, from -retired-? Why do you continue to 'troll' this site? From the comments you've made in the archives and here; it is apparent that you are a management lackey.. and continue to be after retirement, as you admitted to in your prevous comment here. You must be a union-buster or a wanna-be union-buster.. What I don't understand is why you are allowed to continue posting your crap here. Why doesn't Alliance just delete you from their list or something.. Go back to sleep in your hammock and spill your rootbeer on yourself.. or something that IBM managers can handle doing. You're of no good use on these boards. -Retiredbutnotbrainwashed- Comment 04/25/09: TO: -retired- You can't volunteer to be RA'ed. Where do you know this as a fact? Like I said, I did ask to be RA'ed. If it was that easy then IBM could easily RA thousands more. Are you a management troll or something now in retirement? -anonymous- Comment 04/25/09: i believe someone said life is not fair but you need to look ahead. management and employees all have options. you implement what is required of you or you find another job. ibm has changed and will never be the way it was. someday if you are in a position of having to fire someone you may understand. there are both sides of the tradegy.you need to move on and take care of your family. i was an employee too. good luck. -anynameuwant- Comment 04/24/09: To -retried-: "i still have monthly discussions with my old management team and understand the hardships going on in today's ibm." Yeah, you understand the "hardships" management has...whatever they are..but you don't fully appreciate what it's like to go through RA after RA waiting for your turn. You don't understand how devastating it is for someone to lose a $60,000-$100,000 job that you worked 10 or 12 years to get to...with 3 kids and a wife at home and your house in foreclosure. That didn't happen to you remember? Remember "Life is Goot"? Well if you don't, I still do, because I've followed you on these boards for a while. You change how you sign your self; but you don't change your shtick and style...You're a management boy all the way.. "Big Blue" "Life is Goot" "John"..that's you... It's all here in the archives..look it up, pal. -Retiredbutnotbrainwashed- Comment 04/24/09: anon you can always get ra'ed. you are never to good to be let go or else the manager would protect you. if you really want to get a package then go to your upline and tell them you will save another coworker if they give you the package. part of the process in some cases is to lower your pbc (meet distribution) and then ra you. -Retiredbutnotbrainwashed-, i'm only telling people about how the process works. i am not taking a pro or anti union position. i still have monthly discussions with my old management team and understand the hardships going on in today's ibm. this is not unique to ibm. the good life is over and everyone needs to figure out a new survival plan. -retired- Comment 04/23/09: To anonymous: Yeah -retired- really doesn't have any good advice for anyone here. He/She is one of those "Big Blue and True" IBMers that think IBM is the greatest company they ever worked for. That may be true for them, but now that they're retired, they have no idea what IBMers in the USA are going through. They also don't think that employees in IBM deserve to have a contract (as in union). They are of the belief that IBM will be fair and that everything will be ok if you work hard and don't make waves. I think it's obvious that those retired IBMer types now think "life is good' and will stay that way for them; however, if you're between 25 and 55, and still working for IBM in the USA...well it's not so good..as we have seen by the comments on this board. Since you are still employed and your manager says he can't let you go...why not join Alliance@IBM and start organizing yor co-workers. Even if you still want to be RAed, at least you may speed up the process anyway, and help Alliance gain some strength in numbers while you're at it. -Retiredbutnotbrainwashed- Comment 04/22/09: To -retired- Not a good strategy to volunteer for RA as I found out. I tried it last year and I went from a PBC "2+" to a PBC "2", got a crap GDP, was debanded from 6 to band 4, got the 15% pay cut, and now I have an impossible workload (i.e. working seven days - 60+ hours, on-call for the rest) which I didn't have before I asked to be RA'ed. My manager makes up things to why he can't let me go and claims I can't be let go. I feel my manager is trying to throttle me now since I basically told him what my wishes were to be RA'ed.. -anonymous- Comment 04/22/09: As someone who has worked with Sun products to a much greater degree than IBM products, I am very happy with the announcement of the Oracle/Sun deal. I was very worried about what a buyout by IBM would mean for Sun's products, employees, partners, and future. My only advice to anyone from Oracle or Sun that happens across this site in an effort to educate themselves about what becoming part of IBM may have meant: Do not make the mistake that IBMers have made in the past decade. Pay attention now and work to organize. Maybe the talks can be amicable between you and your employer, creating a viable partnership. But you should heed the warning that the actions of IBM leave you and those who are still part of the company. Corporate interests are NOT worker interests. Making the stock price stay up does not correlate with the best long-term strategy or innovation. -MuffinMan- Comment 04/22/09: How to bring jobs back to the US? http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/22917.html says the US has high corporate tax rates which cause companies like IBM to move overseas. Some propose a tax on companies that move to low tax countries. Whay is everybody so crazy about taxing people and arguing about who needs to pay more tax? What if the US and her states cut corporate taxes to induce US companies to move back, and foreign companies in high tax countries to move here? Why is this never discussed? THx -Anonymous- Comment 04/22/09: TO>>>-lotus_notes->>> Do a Yahoo or Google search on : export lotus notes email , there are many programs to do this and some are free. -no-ky- Comment 04/22/09: for all who want to get "wacked" it is simple. Just go into your manager and tem them that if /when there is another RA that you would be interested in taking the package. the package is the same for all of the people in that div. usually this just puts you on top of the list and makes the managers job easier.they don't need to sweat to figure out who goes next. -retired- Comment 04/21/09: My brother lectures at several major universities around Asia. He and his colleagues (who also teach in South America and Russia) all have the same stories of academic misconduct (cheating) amongst even the top students. The owner of a major Asian firm told him that the best students are just the best cheats and that he only hires graduates from the West. So just who are our customers getting when they hire IBM? What quality of people? How can our customers check to ensure they are getting the people / quality / service they are being charged for? How can our government justify issuing H1B visas to firms to hire people of "rare" skill when they don't know if the foreigners really have the education / skills (who's checking to ensure these people really have exceptional skills as claimed and not just low cost labor with low quality degrees / credentials?) -Tom- Comment 04/21/09: The main problem with IBM is that it still exists. It needs to die, Palmy needs to go to prison for the remainder of his life or put in stockades so that former employees may pelt him with eggs on a daily basis. IBM needs to be DONE. They epitomize the left turn that Capitalism took at the end of the 20th century. -V for Vendetta- Comment 04/21/09: Yes you can export Notes databases: File->Export. There are various choices for the format. If you're good at a scripting language, then you should be able to morph that output into something usable. I'm not sure what app could directly read structured text. -Neal Watkins- Comment 04/21/09: Do IBM's elites know something? Yes, they know without a Union they can do to their US employees anything they want. They know they can make short term gains by sacrificing the future of the company. They know they are supported by local, state, and federal representatives that believe Unions are bad for their businesses. And they know will lay off an estimated 15 to 20 thousand employees a year without fear of reprisals by a Union organization of their workforce. No conspiracy theory needed. This is their publicly stated business model. -To NWO Believer- Comment 04/21/09: In the UK, through the "IBM Employee Rewards" scheme we can get discounts from various retail and manufacturer outlets. Last time I looked we could/can get 35% off HP kit. Now this is a great saving on reasonably priced kit. Not sure it puts any money in IBM's bank balance though unless there is some under the covers commission. -UKeye- Comment 04/21/09: Folks: if you are RA'ed and desperately need another laptop to store your information that was on your IBM employee issued laptop then you probably could be fired by IBM for violating IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines (BCG). No personal or non-IBM business approved information should be on your laptop. -dogbert- Comment 04/21/09: Hi everyone, this question may have been asked before, i apologize if it's being repeated. Does anyone know how to export notes email (including archives) into some readable format? -lotus_notes- Comment 04/21/09: I'm not saying you have to believe this, but sometimes additional information is very useful. As such you should check this out and make your own decisions. There is an old joke that says just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're still not out to get you. By the same token, just because you believe in conspiracy theories doesn't mean that there isn't really a conspiracy in place. If you listen to radio hosts such as Alex Jones, Steve Quayle and Rollye James, you know that they have been warning for a long time about forces bent on robbing the average person and transferring the wealth to the elites (and this isn't an Obama vs Bush vs Left vs Right issue - it's much bigger than that). And they say that based on their sources, the timetable has been moved up to finish off the USA very soon. Now take IBM's sudden rush to move so much work overseas, with a target date of YE2009 to eliminate up to 75% of the current US work force. Do IBM's elites know something, and want to make sure all of the personnel are in place in other countries so that the work and the profits can continue? Let's face it, for all of the corporate nonsense about skills, we all know that our overseas replacements are nowhere near as qualified or have the same work ethic as we do in America. That's a very big gamble to take to transfer the work simply to reduce payroll costs at the risk of alienating the customers. Why the rush? Do they know something that we don't? Like there will not be that big of a US employee base or US customer base in the future? -NWO Believer- Comment 04/21/09: After RA, I needed a new home PC to get all my stuff off my IBM Thinkpad before giving it back. It actually gave me a great deal of pleasure to buy a Dell system instead of Lenovo. FYI, anyone can go to DELL.COM/EPP and get a decent system at a good price, plus a corporate discount (no proof of employment is required). -IAmGone- Comment 04/20/09: So I hear on W3 IBM is trumpeting the fact that they're number 1 in global outsourcing. That's no surprise. The other runner-ups, such as Infosys, were all based in India. I'm actually surprised an India-based company isn't number 1. Don't they outsource the process of outsourcing? -lookout- Comment 04/2009: Count me among the many IBM'ers who want out. I won't ask to be RA'ed though as I'm sure they would try to get rid of me with a lousy severance package. If they are going to push me out the door I want everything I'm entitled to. The job is ok and the people (what little is left of our team) are great, but I can't stand working for this horrible organization anymore. Even our 1st line says 'you can't trust these bastards.' -Tired of Big Blew- Comment 04/20/09: to anonymous about the out of state tax issue - Ummm, maybe you should be asking a CPA. And if IBM witheld $1000, and the state refunded you $350 - maybe you really just owed $650 in taxes? You sort of make it sound like you want the entire $1000 back, which would constitute tax-free labor. And why would IBM owe you the tax money anyway? They gave it to Uncle Sam. Go work with a CPA because you failed to provide us what state you live in, what state your worked in, etc.... -running_out_of_time- Comment 04/20/09: To Lookout - Good article. I was part of the Women In Technology startup. I wonder of Dr. Nunes would recommend that her daughter work for IBM. I think not. It's a shame. -RetiredIn06- Comment 04/20/09: The IBM employee discount from Lenovo is NOT gone. I have been able to access it without problem. Please get the facts straight before you get carried away. Just because things are tough does not men one must cry "wolf" all the time. -content_of_character- Comment 04/19/09: Do you IBMers realize that ALL of your personal data is now residing in Manila? Your: Name SOCIAL SECURITY # Age Address Salary The payroll help desk in now in Manila. Of course none of the IBM officesr information was moved there. Reports of identity theft is surfacing. ALL of you should be writing your senators and congressmen, I believe this is illegal with homeland security. Other countries DO NOT ALLOW THIS. Contact your lawyers and sue the Big Blue Pig. -toxic plume man- Comment 04/19/09: http://www.lohud.com/article/20090419/BUSINESS01/904190343 -lookout- Comment 04/18/09: Oinker Sam fell for the Gerstner indoctrination to sell his soul at every cost. Oinker Sam has not been an IBMer for many years now. The myth of Sam actually opening his own e-mail, answering his own phone, and aiming to please and wiping his @$$ is greatly exaggerated. -anonymously- Comment 04/18/09: So the Chinese have infiltrated the US? I wonder if they install these chips in Lenovo....hummm... http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Chinese-spies-put-chips-in-US-planes/articleshow/4412075.cms And one more question, why do I have to get this news from a paper in India? -gadfly- Alliance Reply: And many Americans think the US just owes China a huge amount of money, from loans... hmmmm, indeed! Comment 04/17/09: Regarding buying a Thinkpad debate, my wife has had laptops from HP and Dell, and she thinks my T60 is better than hers. I liked my work T60 so much that I bought one for my youngest son and another for my personal use. Both have been trouble free. Yes, they aren't the lightest and the T-series is not the most advanced, but they work well and are reasonably reliable, although the folks at work tell me the Hitachi (formerly IBM) Travelstar disk drives tend to be troublesome. I also got a very good discount on a wireless router from the employee purchase plan. As for buying used refurbished Thinkpads, you can find them MUCH cheaper through other sources than IBM, so shop around, but make sure you compare the warranties, You can choose to buy whatever you want from whoever you want, but I don't think boycotting Lenovo punishes IBM as much as you may think. -Frank- Comment 04/17/09: Forbes article; mentions that 70% of IBM's revenue comes from overseas. http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/16/ibm-earnings-computers-technology-enterprise-tech-ibm_print.html -Think- Comment 04/16/09: Since I work at a customer site where we cannot have our IBM laptop, I will simply drive to the IBM Office twice a week and expense the distance if they stop reimbursing me for my internet access. We'll see how 88 miles a week stack up to internet reimbursement -Anonymous- Comment 04/16/09: @esadmfs - At least Oinker Sam's reputation is starting to catch up to him. I've had people ask me about their disloyalty when I've told them I worked for IBM. Sooner or later their treason will be back to bite them in the ass. If they don't want to be an American company, fine. I'm all for running them out of the country altogether. I'm not even trying to save my job at this point. Working for these treasonous bastards is only aiding and abetting their treason. Why would I want to do that? Hurry up and give me my package, so I can find an honorable employer to work for. These people are first rate shits, and I no longer want to be part of helping them advance their treasonous goals. -Oink! Oink!- Comment 04/14/09: Great post from the ibm_stock board on yahoo: messages.yahoo link IBM is not helping USA war on terror. 16-Apr-09 07:30 pm Tell me how IBM is helping the US win the war on terror by holding millions of dollars in profits, offshore away from US laws and the tax system..how does that help..how? How does IBM help the US war on terror by taking US tax paying citizens jobs away. They are taking away the very peoples jobs that WERE supporting the troops. These people were being paid and in turn paid their taxes that supported our troops... and IBM takes that away and sends the US citizens to the unemployment line. Look, the US taxpayers supporting the troops, their job is taken away and the job is given to a person in India. Now let me ask you something. How many Indians do you see fighting besides us doing the good fight for freedom. How many Indians are coalition partners...how many? Isn't what IBM is doing equivalent to economic sanctions on the US government and it's people. That's how I see it. You are holding money off shore to avoid taxes. Why are these corporations and their leaders not being tried for sedition? Why? The bankers. the ceo's, the execs doing the outsourcing and off shoring enforcing economic sanctions on the US middle class taxpayers by holding profits off shore. Why should we want companies like this to succeed. You keep supporting them and we'll be like communist china. You see how much they like communist china don't ya. They are sending millions of jobs to china... they love it and we are well on our way. Shortsighted fools cheering the layoffs for a dollar or two in share price. Just remember when you see 5,000 or 10,000 people being laid off and their jobs sent off shore, that's 5~10,000 people that were supporting the troops with their payroll taxes and now it's gone. Economic sanctions by our own US corporations as we speak. The best and the brightest undermining your country. You better start thinking about it -esadmfs- Comment 04/15/09: As the furious debate increases over The Employee Free Choice Act, it is important to remember: If the bill passes and is put into law, workers will have the right to CHOOSE between the Secret Ballot and Majority card sign. The Secret ballot WILL NOT BE "Done away with" as reported by Matt Lauer of NBC's Today show (clip point 5:17ms) in a discussion with Wal-Mart's CEO, Mike Duke: http://tinyurl.com/dj4gv2 Also, take the time to review some videos from http://www.nobusters.org/, a look from the inside of the methods that union busters use and what outrageous amounts of money that companies will pay union busters in just a few short weeks or months; As told by a former union buster. These videos are a prime example of how low a company will 'slither', to keep you from your rights as a worker; to form and join a union. The Employee Free Choice Act's passing is more important to working Americans than ALL the bailouts to Corporate Execs, combined. -Rick White Treasurer, Organizer, Web Maintenance and Health & Safety Rep CWA Local 1701 Alliance@IBM www.allianceibm.org- Comment 04/14/09: I got taxes withheld by IBM from my paycheck due to business travel to a different state I worked in 07 in the amount of $1000, but that state only refunded me back $350. how do I get the difference back from IBM. Thanks -TaxQuestion- Alliance Reply: We moved this comment here, because it's not relevant to Job Cuts. Comment 04/13/09: IBMer. Expose Ginny and her ilk to whom? We already know 99 percent of management are greedy egotistical slimeballs; so who exactly would we be exposing them to. I would think exposing them to a unified workforce, with trained negotiators representing employee interests, would do us a lot more good. Then when they refuse to negotiate due to their greed and arrogance; the press coverage as we went on a nationwide strike and shut down IBM and all its customers, until they negotiated in good faith, would be all the exposure they would need. We, the workers need to become too big to fail. -Exodus2007- Alliance Reply: Well said. Thank you, Exodus2007, for always stating what the basic and fundamental reason Alliance@IBM is here for. We do appreciate your support and well informed comments. Keep up the good work. Comment 04/14/09: Anon - I'm honestly surprised that you love your Thinkpad. Is this the only laptop you've ever used? If so, you seriously need to go play with the laptops at Best Buy, etc before you offer up any of your hard-earned cash for what is essentially an inferior product. Please don't dump your money on that piece of crap - go buy a good one with a warranty, etc. Besides, IBM isn't going to let you keep it anyway because it has IBM confidential data and proprietary information as well as IBM-licensed software. The only way the can control the integrity of the information stored on that laptop is to get it back and either wipe it or destroy it. It will be cleaned and re-issued to another employee. -WhyPayIBM??- Comment 04/14/09: To anyone who has been RA'ed: If you want to have a real laptop do yourself a huge favor. Get a better laptop other than a Lenovo. -anonymous- Comment 04/14/09: I didn't see those three letters on the list of top 99 most ethical companies in the world....Wonder what that means.... http://ethisphere.com/wme2009/ -gadfly- Comment 04/14/09: Will all you people that want to keep your employee issued IBM/Lenovo just STOP! Geez, if you loved your laptop so much why couldn't it have ensured you kept your job and wasn't RA'ed??? Your laptop was only to be used for IBM company use only so what do you love about it now? -stinkpad- Comment 04/13/09: Alliance, I believe in a few things. Work hard and you will be rewarded, and do upon others as you would have them do upon you. I have served this country, with the beliefs above, and my father and brother have done the same ... Yet I find myself, laid off (FIRED) and jobless from an IBM, which I gave 19 years of my life to. I, presumably, did all the right things; with a college degree in Computer Science (Cum Laude), 4 years in the US Army defending what I thought was the American dream, yet ... WHY ALLOW THESE COMPANYS to bring in foreign technical workers (H1 and others), while many US workers like myself are FIRED? How can we expect my brothers in arms, who have taken the same oath I did many years ago, to fight and die for CORPORATE GREED, I WOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN THIS OATH IF KNEW WHAT I KNOW NOW!! … My oath and theirs are below … I want you to say this oath in honor of those who have died for the American dream, yet are ignored by our Government and “Corporate America”: My oath and those before and after me who have served in the US military … 1) I am an American fighting man. I serve in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense. 2) I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender my men while they still have the means to resist. 3) If I am captured, I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy. 4) If I become a prisoner of war, I will keep faith with my fellow prisoners. I will give no information or take part in any action which might be harmful to my comrades. If I am senior, I will take command. If not, I will obey the lawful orders of those appointed over me, and will back them up in every way. 5) When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am bound to give only name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies, or harmful to their cause. 6) I will never forget that I am an American fighting man, responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America. To be honest, after my tenure in the US Army and the oath I swore to above, I feel BETRAYED by our elected officials that allow our current service members to go in the face of danger and DIE … so that corporate greed and CEO’s give away the last point of what I swore to “… responsible for my actions, and dedicated to the principles which made my country free. I will trust in my God and in the United States of America”. -Anonymous- Alliance Reply: Thank you for your service and dedication to the Untied States. There are many of us here that truly do appreciate your sacrifice and the sacrifices of your brothers and sisters in harms way. You are correct about the apparent betrayal of our elected offcials, that succumb to the corporate greed that led this country down the wrong path for many years. IBM doesn't even consider themselves an 'American Company' anymore. There isn't any better time, than now, to organize those IBMers still employed, and fight back against this greedy IBM company. Comment 04/13/09: It looks like Oinker Sam isn't going to provide corporate managed phone services to work at home employees any longer. The announcement states if you provide it yourself, IBM will continue to pick up the tab and provide you with an IBM phone number. Of course, you can count the days before Oinker Sam decides not to pick up that tab, either. -Oink! Oink!- Comment 04/13/09: Exodus2007: I agree that we need to drive for a union contract, but we also need to expose these greedy slimeballs like Ginni Rometty. I read in one of her ego- inflating interviews that she is considered to be a replacement for IBM's top CEO position. Would you want this bimbo running the IBM company? We need to expose these ego maniacs. Ginni's mission in life is to climb the ladder from one of the 50 most powerful women to 10 and finally to number one. She doesn't give a crap about me or you or anyone else. Ginni is interested in one person, herself. -IBMer- Alliance Reply: The point is: it doesn't matter who runs IBM... it matters whether the IBM employees are working with a contract. If they aren't, then ANY of the CEO's to take Sam's place will be treating the employees the same way... Ginni or Ninny.. It doesn't matter. The focus needs to be on organizing the next 5,000 or 10,000 IBMers that are rumored to be losing their jobs in June....NOTon whether Ginni is being groomed for "IBM's top CEO position." Comment 04/13/09: anon i did not recognize anyone from the masters commerical but have recognized ibm'ers on some of the other commericals. -retired- Comment 04/13/09: -Anon- While you are still an employee go to Lenovo's employee purchase used laptop site and you should be ale to buy one just like it for a few hundred dollars. IBM never gives employees state of the art laptops so you can bet its cheap. They are probably selling the ones they took back from folks they RA'd in January. As far as those poor folks in India, Gee, if we worried about the poor folks in America's standard of living and organized IBM we would be able to afford to donate things to Pakistan to raise their standard of living so they would not be jealous of their Indian neighbors working hard and prospering at OUR jobs. I will stand with my union brothers untill I cannot stand anymore! -Exodus2007- Comment 04/13/09: I wonder how many of those folks saying "I am an IBMer" in the commercial are still IBMers or will be hit in the next drive by RA. Funny that IBM has the $$$ to sponsor The Masters but not to invest in it's USA employees. (I guess Sam got his green jacket. Sam if you did then the snobs at the Masters will make sure you can't take that jacket off the course.) -anonymous- Comment 04/13/09: About IBM in India. Actually I would be more concerned about Pakistan (where do ya think Bin Laden is if he is still alive?). Imagine a Paksitani on the border who has an Indian neighbor working for IBM down the street over the border. The Pakistani compares their standard of living to their neighbor in IBM byt looking at the size of their house, their new car, etc. Animosity perhaps? You bet. Oh I'm sure the IBM senior management team figured this out and after action plans and the like conclude it is a "no problem, not to worry, never will happen". -Anon- Comment 04/12/09: After an RA,, does anyone know how to keep the IBM laptop to yourself? (well, what do you pay to keep the laptop for yourself?) Any comments? Please, I love my laptop! (IBM given laptop and got RAed) - thanks, -Anon- Comment 04/12/09: Slowly ever so slowly people start to get the big picture. In the grand scheme of things we should not give a damn what Ginni or any other useless executive gets or what board they serve on. It only frustrates us to see their over inflated compensation. All we should worry about is how to organize and position ourselves and with us our families to get our piece of the pie. The only way we can affect an executives compensation short of sabotaging the company which would be kinda dumb as it would cost us all our jobs is to organize and hammer out a binding contract providing all the things we desire from our employment. I do not care what the execs make as long as we are fairly compensated by OUR definition of fair. Keep striving for that goal and we may one day achieve it. Happy Easter to all. -Exodus2007- Comment 04/12/09: I finally got the see the "I am IBM" commercials while watching the Masters today. Those commercials scared the hell out of me. Because that technology would most likely get in the hands of people who want to control the world - it literally enables the Big Brother scenario of Orwell's 1984 and it empowers people to control the behaviors of others in unprecedented and unanticipated ways. The use by evil people in the world is the most obvious thing (like the use of IBM tabulating machines by the Third Reich to identify and exterminate Jews), but the absolute power enables even well-intentioned people in power to abuse that power. There is nothing in the commercials stating the obvious concern of the potential abuse of people's rights - including privacy, data ownership and the right to understand what their data is being used for and by whom. So, not only is IBM selling out its employees and the USA, it is selling out their personal rights and freedoms for a price. I don't trust IBM and I don't trust this technology in the hands of government. -Frank- Comment 04/12/09: Looks like Ginni is definitely jumping before she is pushed from the board of AIG: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123854699790376309.html Is this someone we want in IBM? On a side note, not looking forward to RA's here in the UK at half year!! It's all rumour at the moment, but it's got to hit Europe sooner rather than later!! -Anonymous-UK- Alliance Reply: See our response (below) regarding Ginni or Exodus2007's comment 2 above this one. Comment 04/11/09: Alliance: any way to publicize further Ms. Ginni was the head of the AIG board's compensation committee? Clearly, she should be the next RA'ed IBMer. This women obviously has no integrity since she recently updated her resume to take it off. -anonymous- Alliance Reply: You're doing it now. The Media watches this comments section, closely. For Alliance to focus on her, instead of organizing employees to fight back against the company's treatment of them; would be disingenuous to Alliance members. Sure, we agree with your sentiment; But we have to direct our energy toward something more deserving of the attention: A union contract for IBM workers. Comment 04/11/09: Here's alittle humor. After hearing about life at IBM, some friends came up with: Ill-Begotten Money; Impeach Brutish Management; Ineptly Bad Management; Infernal Black Magic; International Beelzebub Manifestation -Gorya- Comment 04/11/09: I remember when IBM was thrown out of India, I think it will happen again. What many multi-nationals have lost sight of is the political instablity in many countries like India. When IBM exited India, I remeber management saying they would never make the same mistake again. Guess what, they are risking the entire company this time. What is the fallback plan if India goes through another political reignof terror. If you don't learn from your mistakes your bound to br burnt again and agian. Slumlord Sam doesn't care because he has a contract and is set for life. The shareholders, bond holders, employees and retirees are the only ones who are going to lose. The other question that customers need to ask of IBM is: "Show me your business continuity plan". IBM can't show one because it doesn't exist. A major problem in India simply means that all of IBM's customers will also fail when the support system in India is no longer able to provide the necessary business suppport that customers thought they where paying for. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong. -Anonymous- Comment 04/11/09: -Anonymous- They (IBM beannie counters or overseers) got the closing CLAIM numbers for 1st QTR and for the recent RA. They are gearing up for another round. You'll see the reminders again! If you see a reminder to get all your CLAIM data in before 5/1/2009 you can bet everything there will be another RA. CLAIM is used as a weeding out tool more than a work receivable financial reporting engine that IBM abuses to screw the customer and the resource (a resource is any work widget that still breathes air). There is still time to join the Allliance. Have you joined yet? -Anonymous- Comment 04/11/09: "Unionize this company then STRIKE!" This sentiment is actually only half right. Why does everyone in IBM think a union like the Alliance just wants to strike? Wake up and learn that the LAST THING a union wants to do is call a strike! A union wants to try to make an overall better work environment for the employee. Losing any pay at any time for any action is not a union motive. A strike is only used as a LAST RESORT when all else negotiating in good faith with a recalcitrant management is not happening. -Anonymous- Comment 04/09/09: Anyone else notice that those obnoxiously cheery CLAIM reminders went away after 3/19? I wonder if the person writing them got sacked. (Or heaven forbid, management thought it wouldn't be appropriate in light of all of the layoffs...) -Anonymous- Comment 04/09/09: I did a little research on Ginni Rometty, Sr. Vice President of IBM Global Sales and Distribution (of Your Job Overseas). I noticed that she quickly got the Director of AIG's Compensation Committee off her resume. Check it out. She updated her resume March 2009. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/biography/10069.wss Nice one Ginni. She is still IBM's 7 million dollar woman and one of the 50 most powerful women in the business world. Why doesn't she use some of her power to save some IBM jobs in the US? Note that you can download a hi-res 2MB jpeg of Ginni so you can hang it on your wall. Just don't throw darts at it. LOL What a friggin joke. -IBMer- Comment 04/09/09: The word from managment is.....90 day freeze on all IBM ITD positons, and another round of layoffs coming at the end of the month. All positions will be backfilled with contractors and GR.....What a company!!! -Anonymous- Comment 04/09/09: I think alot of you are missing the point behind the 15 minute response time issue. You are required to respond to a page in 15 mins of the page. But you are also required to be in place working on the issue withing 60 minutes of your engagement. I used to have this issue with my team members who were on call. They thought being on call meant sitting at the house waiting for a page. Live your life dont let ibm live you.. I am not saying go to the beach for example but if you wanted to go to the shopping mall... Go.... -altoids- Comment 04/09/09: Don't be surprised if the next thing to be cut for NA IBMers is your work hours. If IBM can get the offshored staff to take on more hours with pay and work harder they can then take 10% of hours away from non-exempt USA and Canadian employees and affect a 10% pay cut. For exempt employees it becomes a "pay adjustment" where you only make 90% of your exempt salary. Don't think IBM will try this? Ok, then repeat after me: No union = at will employee = NO CONTRACT. Want to protect your salary? Get a union contract now! -anonymous- Comment 04/08/09: to Enough: "I don't pay for the connection I don't have a job. Actually no longer think that is a such bad option." Don't give them the satisfaction. That is EXACTLY what they want. They want to piss you off so that you quit and they don't have to pay you severance. What's the difference between what you'll pay for the connection and what you could receive in severance with the next layoff? (oh, right... there's no guarantee that ANY of us that are left will get any severance...) No union = at will employee = NO CONTRACT. -another telecommuter- Comment 04/08/09: To>>-Enough->> Are you being PAID to be on call ? Put in the time for payment. If told to NOT put it in, don't turn on pager. Take it home, take out the batteries, next morning put in the batteries and respond, after starting your work day. -no-ky- Comment 04/08/09: Comment to DM's statement. That is exactly what I tried and was told is is part of my condition of employment to be able to provide 15 minute pager response. IE: I don't pay for the connection I don\'t have a job. Actually no longer think that is a such bad option. -Enough- Comment 04/07/09: Canada got the official email today about the internet connection being non expensible. No problem! I will do 2 hours a month less work and when I am oncall, those priority one issues will need to wait an hour so I can drive to the nearest office to log in and look at the problem. As far as I am concerned, my internet connection which I pay for is for personal use only. -DM- Comment 04/07/09: Two thirds of my team is gone. Work is being divided up. Training my replacement. All work is stopping. It kind of fits that another RA would be coming at the end of the Quarter. I can't see them keeping me when there is absolutely nothing to do. Besides, there's that additional goal of outsourcing all internal accounts. That is what I've written to all my local, state, and federal representatives. -Internal Accounts Are Dead- Alliance note: This comment was moved to the Job Cuts Comments section Comment 04/07/09: I am an IBM tech support employee who works from home. I just received notice that IBM would not be reimbursing me for my internet connection cost. It states that IBM "will continue to reimburse home internet expenses when otherwise required by local law and/or individual employee or labor relations agreement." Is there any way that Alliance Union can force this issue and get IBM to back off on this policy change? -Anonymous- Alliance reply: The blunt answer is no. Not until you organize your co-workers and build membership and working committees to expand the membership and grow your power. It has to start with you and everyone else that is still employed by IBM (excluding mangement, of course). IBM will continue to do as they please until you do what's necessary. Wouldn't it be great if all of the 10,000 IBMers, that are rumored to lose their jobs in June, took the time between now and then and organized, joined the Alliance, and were able to request a vote through the NLRB before the layoffs began? Alliance has the tools and information available to help them do just that. However, we can't do this for you. You must learn to ride this bike or swim this pool, or fight this fight. You must do it. But, you don't have to do it alone. That's why they call it a 'Union'. Get busy organizing now, or get busy losing your job in June. Repeat after me: At Will Employee=No union contract=No protection from termination and abuse by your employer. Comment 04/07/09: To another IBM serial# : to add to your comment, anyone that has VOIP for a work phone may want to consider going telco now. IBM still has to pay for an office phone (until they come up with a line of BS to pass that bill along), so why would anyone want to tie up their personal internet service with “IBM” office phone? To save IBM money? I think not! To those that think that this is trivial subject, I can appreciate your insight as to why you feel that way, especially from our brothers and sisters that have been RA'd. You are the best for being here and providing your support and guidance. For me, the reason I raise a fuss over this is that it\'s another step in the road to paying for everything. First we're forced to home offices (or dining room tables), now we pay for internet, and cell phones, for most (which I refuse to use for work now when traveling, because it's not reimbursed and I use it only for emergencies – it’s a prepaid plan). Next will be the home office phone, and then health care, and our own retirements. The only thing left after that is the pay, and I'm sure Sam the Salesman is working on that one too – “an entire workforce that compensates itself.” This has to stop. People were forced to work from home and incurred more expenses working their, many of whom live close enough to work where they would still save money even with the gas prices, because they have to pay for more electricity, heating, cooling, etc.. But what makes IBM "appear" to be good, is that they "give" people the option from working at an IBM office, after they've gotten people use to working at home. My anger is directed at IBM, and it's handling of its employees. When IBM is paying car services to have Helpdesk Agents in India driven to and from work as part of their compensation package, I think the real "third-world" employees work here in the US. Why should anyone working for IBM in the US be treated this poorly, especially when I can almost guarantee that no US employee has ever sunk the poor performance level of a Helpdesk Agent in India? When does it stop? When do we say enough is enough? If we accept this, if we accept more layoffs with calling them on it, what comes next? I\'m now less concerned about what happens to me, as to those that actually want to be here the rest of their lives, and for those that want to come back. We all need to be supportive of what IBM is taking away from it's people, including their jobs, and fight for getting them back. The News Agencies see this, this is another reason why I post. They see Alliance@IBM as a credible source of news at IBM, because IBM will not speak about the horrors they are pushing on the US work force (News/Press agencies, please press IBM for responses to what their doing to their US Employees and this countries workers). Seeing the Congressional response to all this, tells me that they feel they are in no position to support the IBM employees, only make things better for the corporations through reducing the Billions they pay in managing their business– again, “CONGRESS” is in no position to support IBM WORKERS (AKA TAX PAYERS)!! It's now, that IBM Employees need to mobilize as a single force, Unionize this company then STRIKE! I am confident that the IBM executives cannot run this company without the employees, I know that first hand. Without the US workforce, IBM cannot survive. If we wait any longer, they will survive because the will have succeeded in moving everything offshore. -Totally Disgusted- Alliance reply: Forget about the "STRIKE" and focus on organizing first. Comment 04/07/09: IBM is is a dying enterprise: Does the individual computer user need IBM? Does anyone use and rely on a program product from them? Smartsuite anypone (BTW it cam from another IBM acquisition, Lotus)? Does the common person have an IBM hardware device? Laptop? Oh, that's now a Lenovo. Palm Pilot? IBMBerry anyone :) ? We hear how much IBM is an "On Demand" enterprise. Pervasive? Hardly for the inidividual or small business. IBM says they supply services, hardware, and software to small businesses and individuals. Ok, then why on w3 do all we hear about are mega-deal signings for services? Except for the mainframe (Zseries) what niche does IBM have? For IBM to return profits it just cuts, cuts, cuts, and more cuts. Cutting it's own arms, legs, organs, out and off and when it get's to it 's heart you know what'll happen. Oh, don't worry about Sam and his posse, they have it all figured out on how they'll enjoy themselves! The big money in the world is drying up. Look at all the wealth that has vaporized. There isn't enough left for an IBM. With it will be the death of IBM. -IBM_dying- Comment 04/07/09: Why are you folks still, in IBM, so hung up on this non-reimbursement of internet services? Want to trade places with an RA'ed employee? Then losing your internet re-imbursement will seen rather miniscule. -RA'ed- Comment 04/07/09: Peter, what did you expect??? This is normal IBM procedure. Think back and you will find other things of a similar nature they have done in the past. -RA'd 2007- Comment 04/07/09: The removal of the reimbursement for home internet /phone services is a major and very disgusting cash grab. Discussed it with manger and said I did not wish to pay for internet service myself, so give me a space in an IBM office. Was then told I still have to pay for a home internet connection as it is now part of my JOB to be able toget on-line and respond to pages within 15 minutes. Nice way to force a salary reduction on people. Having a internet connection was not part of the job requirements when I was hired decades ago. Or is this another way t otry to get people to quit without handing out packages? -peter- Comment 04/06/09: If you start to complain about the change in policy for high speed internet, your manager will just tell you to go back into your local office - and it doesn't matter how far it is from your home. The only way to get reimbursed is for your local office to say there is no space available to seat you. Anyone actually been to a brick and mortar IBM office in the last couple of years? THEY ARE PRACTICALLY EMPTY! How much money is IBM wasting on lease/running these empty offices? IBM RESO is a joke and have made some bad decisions. -anon- Comment 04/06/09: Read what the SUN president said: http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/ibm_is_in_a_pickle If IBM took over SUN he would be the first to get boot. -DUH!- Comment 04/06/09: I saw a comment on the InformationWeek web site that supported IBM stopping Internet reimbursement with the statement "Most people have to buy internet for home use anyway. "... Huh? I know several people that choose not to spend $ for high speed Internet access or in fact any Internet access at all. What a moronic statement. -ITNUT- Comment 04/06/09: 'I was trying to send a Thanks Award to Sam, however you are not allowed' How funny. I guess they know what most will put in the comments section. How very clever of you, -Anonymous-.' Sam doesn't need the trash that is an IBM Thanks Award. He doesn't need your Thanks. He just needs to make more $$$ for his fat ass greedy bastard self. Or maybe he doesn't appreciate any THANKS from any IBM employee. -Anonymous- Comment 04/06/09: You need to post this one! http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216402013 -Anonymous- Comment 04/05/09: IBM, just like almost every other company,is internet dependent. IT dependency requires highspeed internet services. Both your business applications productivity and Voice-Over-IP telephone service require this business tool to be in place - no business tools, no ability to work. Required business tools for company operations, whether your officially assigned Work At Home or Brick and Mortar office, are the company's financial responsibility, not the employee. Large companies like IBM have extremely financially benefited from Work At Home assignments with billion$$$$ saved in reduced real estate cost, facilities operations costs (YES, it includes expensive TELCO systems for phone and highspeed internet), insurance, etc. Do you agree that teachers should buy pencils, paper and other supplies for their students just so they can teach? Do you think you should pay for for your highspeed back at the company office? IBM is looking to save $16 to $20 million in the US by incorrectly shifting the business burden of highspeed tools onto the employees. CEO Sam Palmisano's compensation package was $21 million for 2008. -another IBM serial#- Comment 04/05/09: <Marketwatch link> SAN
FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Talks between Sun Microsystems Inc. 4:00pm 04/03/2009 Delayed
quote dataAdd to portfolio JAVA 8.49,
+0.28, +3.4%) and IBM Corp. (IBM:International Business Machines 4:00pm 04/03/2009 Delayed
quote dataAdd to portfolio Comment 04/04/09: 'I was trying to send a Thanks Award to Sam, however you are not allowed' How funny. I guess they know what most will put in the comments section. How very clever of you, -Anonymous-. With a retirement of $20K a day, he can buy all the merchandise he likes. By the way, will anyone ask him if he can live on $20K a day at this year's shareholder meeting? I doubt if the previous very brave gentleman will be allowed the microphone. -anonymous- Comment 04/04/09: What about organizing Sun employees ahead of the much talked about merger? I don't see how that's going to happen. Folks who've never worked at IBM have no idea how screwed up it is. And IBMers who *DO*, have yet to support unionization in majority numbers. -irRational- Comment 04/04/09: I am a WAH employee at IBM and will be paying for my broadband access from May. Just saw the article in newspaper that ISPs are starting to charge by usage. I do not think it is just a conincidence. http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1471137.html -WAH forIBM- Comment 04/04/09: I hope IBM does not take over Sun. If they do, that will be the death of Java. I am sure Microsoft is giddy over the idea of IBM buying Sun. -computedeux- Comment 04/04/09: That's exactly the point of the Alliance. A collective voice that can be heard when all the individual voices are ignored. When hundreds of thousands of workers in the U.S. are laid off every month it is time to give a rebirth to the power of Unions. My company may not care about me, doubt it does, but it would care about the voice of a Union. -The Point of Collective Bargaining- Comment 04/04/09: IBM used to give 52 weeks for voluntary separation packages. Quite possibly IBMers got 2 weeks pay for every year worked up to 52 weeks severance as well. But then again before the mid-1980's did IBM ever RA anyone? Now the best you get is 26 weeks. Next you'll probably only get up to 13 weeks or worse: no severance. Ask yourself this: when was the last time IBM did not try to save money at your expense? Folks by 2010 it might all be over for IBM USA unless you folks ORGANIZE to protect yourselves. -anonymous- Comment 04/04/09: What about organizing Sun employees ahead of the much talked about merger? -Nym- Comment 04/04/09: Highspeed internet is a tool that IBM lives on. It is a company operational business expense. It is not the responsibility of official WAH IBM employees to fund core IBM business operations. -another IBM serial#- Comment 04/03/09: All you loyal ibmers will soon get the shaft, you will find out that your company you used to work for really don't care about you. -M- Comment 04/03/09: Alliance Note: ATTENTION ALL VISITORS: Alliance@IBM has NO CONFIRMATION AT THIS TIME, Friday April 3rd 6:00pm EDT, that the shooter in the Binghamton, NY Tragedy is, or ever was, an IBM employee. We have received many comments making this assumption. Alliance@IBM CWA Local 1701 extends its deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and to those persons that were part of this horrendous tragedy, today in Binghamton, NY. We will NOT post any further comments, on this subject. Please do not send anymore comments on this topic. Comment 04/03/09: With all this talk about IBM buying Sun and seeing al the talk about layoffs on this site, inquiring minds want to know, what are the IBM severance packages? If this deal happens, it's not looking good for Sun employees, estimating 30% cuts. -\looking in from Sun\- Comment 04/03/09: I agree, we have bigger fish to fry than loss of $50 for DSL/Cable reimbursement. But, what gets my goat is you just know that the executives aren't getting ANYTHING cut. No perks, no nothing. In order for the little guy to have a voice, we need a union. Please Join!!! I did. -Proud Alliance Member- Comment 04/03/09: IBM saves bundles by making employees pay for IP connections for work from home. This was a requirement to help pay for the Golf Memberships at Westchester Country Club, Agusta National, Pinehurst, Sea Island Plantation and seveal other trendy locations that have sufficent airport facilities for IBM Corprate "Jets" to take Slumdog Sam and the other 3,500 Greedy Bastards to hit the little white ball. -Work from Home- Comment 04/03/09: Folks, listen to -Exodus2007- It is the straight line. It's the truth. Time to wake up and THINK TWICE. -sby_willie- Comment 4/02/09: Nearly 10 Thousand of your coworkers have lost their jobs for no other reason than executive greed and all I see is whining about losing your 50 bucks a month for internet access. Haven't you all caught on yet that IBM will take EVERYTHING they can away from you as long as you let them? If losing internet offends you that much, organize IBM and insist it be part of your employment contract that it be paid for. IBM knows you will whine, bitch and complain amongst yourselves. Then you will threaten to go to dialup just to teach IBM a lesson. Then just before you do that you will chickenshit out because dialup will ruin your productivity and maybe put you top of the list for the next RA, so you will knuckle under and pay for it yourselves and vow to yourself yet again that this is the last time you will accept a take away. Until the next time. -Exodus2007- Comment 4/02/09: http://www.wcbs880.com/IBM-MIA-for-New-York-/4133086 Let's post some comments, people! -lookout- Comment 4/02/09: Let's not lose sight of the reason for the home office clampdown. It's NOT related to the climate. It's about FORCING people to live and work in the rural hinterlands and so accept peanuts for pay. Anybody want to move to Dubuque Iowa? How about Kansas? Get your kids some real science education while you're there, slaving away for chump change, training your new colleague, er, replacement, from India. Come on now, any takers? Let's see those hands. I didn't think so. Also keep in mind that there's nothing to stop IBM from setting minimum home office Internet connection speeds. They can say if you don't have DSL or cable, upgrade at your own cost, move to a physical office location that is hiring (ex Iowa, India, etc.) or get out of the company. -lookout- Comment 4/01/09: The pig is employing the same tactics worldwide: (from Vault.com) Hard times in IBM Austalia Apr 1, 2009 11:16 AM EST Was verbally informed by management yesterday that tea bags, and instant coffee would not be replenished in Australian IBM offices. Also, employees will no longer be reimbursed for DSL network expenses. This comes only months after record profits were made last year. I'm not a big fan of instant coffee at the best of times and actually pay for my own DSL, but I shake my head at the message this trivial bean counting sends to the workforce. Might be time to start working just 6-7 productive hours a day now (no caffine fix) and definitely wont be working late each evening (no home network). Perhaps the work life balance benifits of this madness might be worth it. -from_Down_Under_Mattie- Comment 4/01/09: Executives slacking off: (ibm mentioned) Nine To Five Hannah Seligson, 04.01.09, 06:00 PM EDT Some executives are revoking the 24/7 rule and reinstating the eight-hour work day. http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/30/careers-workplace-home-leadership-women-balance.html?partner=yahootix -slacken_execs- Comment 4/01/09: Might just be a server down. Can someone take a peek? I'm trying to submit my union membership (I've finally had enough, we keep being given more and more projects and watching more and more people go and watching Sam's paycheck and bonus getting larger and larger). "Network Timeout The server at http://www.cwa-union.org is taking too long to respond." -Anonymous- Alliance reply: When all else fails do it the old fashioned way: print out the form on the web site and snail mail it. Thanks for your support. Comment 04/01/09: One response that I have received--awaiting White House, Congressman and Senate! Let's keep up the pressure.....Fill their voicemails and their inboxes and do not let up! -Out in 2005 and Happy- From:
Assemblyman Joel Miller <millerj@assembly.state.ny.us> Dear XXXX
, As you know,
IBM has a very large presence in Dutchess County. The I fully
support any legislation that would rewrite the tax codes to Sincerely, Joel Miller Comment 4/01/09: Hey folks, another IBM benefit you have now! If you work at home you pay for internet line connection now. Do this: use dialup..get an old external 14.4KB modem or step down a 56KB to that minimum bandwidth and tell IBM "well you asked for this, so this you shall get"! -anonymous- Comment 4/01/09: I do not work for IBM but have and have had many friends that do. I have been very very upset with all the outsourcing American companies have been doing for years. I started years ago to cut off credit cards and not buy products that do this. If I hear a voice from an off shore person regarding any business of mine I hang up. I have cut off credit cards with Macy's, Sears and other companies. I know they do business in many countries but when it comes to my business I want an American to address me. Let the people in India call the people in India. I am on your side and will do whatever I can to support IBM employees or any group that wants to start a USA movement against out sourcing. -Anonymous- Comment 04/01/09: IBM canadian employees are outraged with this gobal resourcing as well - in an attempt to stop it we all have to ban together (strength in numbers) immed stop doing business with IBM cusotmers that global resource - many finanical institutions in canada - cite the reson for leaving being refuse to deal with companies that global resource - we need to get this word out and action started -ibm cnd employee- Alliance reply: The Alliance is forming an Alliance@IBM Canada Chapter with our partner CWA Canada. IBM Canada employees who are interested please send us your contact info to ibmunionalliance@gmail.com Alliance reply: We moved this comment to Job Cuts Comments Comment 4/01/09: So with IBMs announcement it will no longer pay for internet service for its over 40% at home employees looks like IBM wants to start impacting the climate by having employees drive into work, stay stuck in traffic etc. So much for this green footprint we all talk about. Well if IBM isnt paying for my internet service thatn on snow days I will stay at home and not work. Next we will all be required to bring our own paper towels and toilet paper since free coffee disappeared long ago -IBM Not green- Comment 4/01/09: Genni, is on the BoD's of AIG, she helped drive that company into the ground and ruined the worlds economy, why would IBM trust and value her judgement. Actions speak louder than words, this BIMBO should be dumped even before Randy McDonald and everyone knows I'm no fan of his. -Anonymous- Comment 3/31/09: Here is the link to the article I mentioned earlier about new problems being caused for home office workers: http://w3.ibm.com/news/w3news/top_stories/2009/03/chq_internetpolicy_overview.html -lookout- Comment 3/31/09: IBM is starting to clamp down on working from home. They are now announcing that they will no longer pay for work-related home Internet access, which will now as of May 1, 2009 become the financial responsibility of the employee. If you don't like the change, the article says, return to work. The onslaught I recently warned about has already slowly begun! -lookout- Comment 3/31/09: WTF, let's make Ginni the next IBM CEO. -anonymous- Comment 3/31/09: What is going to happen in IBM when they have a bad qtr? Is this going to be the one? One bad qtr. and greedy Sam can forget the $10 to $11 per share target. Also the stock market will not recover sufficiently by 2010 to support IBM at say $100 target anyhow no matter what the greedy bastards do. -anonymous- Comment 3/30/09: How come no one on the board cares to comment about Ginni Rometty, Senior VP of Global Offshoring? Do you think it is fair that she earns over $7 million per year to offshore our jobs to India? Do you think it is fair that she is Director of the Compensation Committee to AIG? She hands out multi-million dollar bonuses to those greedy PIGs for running the company into the ground? Come on folks, lets hear some comments! -IBMer- Alliance reply: My guess is, they have given her enough 'press'. The last post on her was 3/21/09...and I think it was yours? You make a valid point; I just think that people are angry about so many IBM abuse issues, that hers got lost in the shuffle.. a week ago. My two cents. Rick White Treasurer, Organizer, Web Maintenance and Health & Safety Rep CWA Local 1701 Alliance@IBM www.allianceibm.org Comment 3/30/09: What? The Chinese responsible for a virus? Say it ain't so....I wonder if the Chinese even own any computer companies.... hummm http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123834671171466791.html -gadfly- Comment 3/30/09: Why should I buy any IBM Product??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO -MSJ- Comment 3/30/09: -Nym- I hold out hope that if IBM buys Sun, we will see more Alliance members joining and coming from Sun! -IBMUnionYES- Comment 3/30/09: My observation seems that these recent RA'ed IBMers are making more than usual crow about their fate. Could be these were the folks that thought they truly were immune from a resource action. Are we seeing more band 8-10's and maybe some D's in this RA? I think so. Judging by some comments on these boards these folks had no clue of what severance is, how to apply for unemployment, what transition medical benefits are, etc. They truly must have thought they were immune from an RA. Most if not all of the recent RA'ed never gave the Alliance a peep or even joined as associate members since they felt they didn't need to. Well guess what now you need the Alliance now? It's now obvious IBM has cut all the fat, muscle, cartilage, and shaved bone it can from the IBM cadaver. Now it is just sawing bone away in the USA. Pretty soon they'll be nothing left even for the scavengers to pick at. -anonymous- Comment 3/29/09: The problem with America (and other developed countries too) is that most people still think one major political party is better than the other one. Newsflash: the globalists own both parties, lock, stock and barrel, and most people are so brainwashed that they can’t get out of their little World of “I’ll vote <insert party> next time”. Left and right as ideologies still exist but have no political significance. The World is now divided between globalism and nationalism. Sadly, the economy will have to completely collapse before reality sinks in and people leave behind their antiquated thinking of Republican vs. Democrat. There is an emerging new empire that aims to capture the entire wealth of the World and force everyone else into poverty. It’s an invisible borderless empire, made up of bankers and corporations. They are robbing us blind. Sooner or later we will have to rise and deal with them by force. The new “post-globalist” system will feature extreme economic nationalism, tight regulations and more transparent government. Banks and corporations will not be privately owned (call it what ever you want…). The current system has failed, they just don’t have the nerve to publicly admit it. -Socrates- Comment 3/29/09: So, has it occurred to you folks that management is probably looking to buy Sun in part to bust the unions? -Nym- Comment 3/29/09: Why would non-exempt technicians read and reply to Lotus notes on their days off and on vacation? It is called ranking. The first lines tell you that you should not do it because it is over time and they will not pay you for it. Then with a wink and a nod you are asked why you are "out of loop" on your three days off. Gee, if you want to get ranked on the bottom just follow the rules. Want to improve your ranking you better do like the others and keep your mouth shut. Of course we as a company own the Dutchess County politicians and the labor department is afraid of Big Blue. -Ranking Games- Comment 3/29/09: Please check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSY Did You Know? It is a statisical assessment of the world and it's economic and power shift to countries like, India and China. It is not pleasant to watch. My questions are, who put these numbers together? Is this FUD coupled with Recession/Depression anxiety? Check it out for yourself. It has implications for all of us working for IBM. -NoUSAFuture- Comment 3/28/09: At least, please give an IBM Award to whomever you know will lose a job. -justMe- Comment 3/27/09: RA'd yesterday, does anyone know what effect the severance package has on collecting unemployment specifically in NC? Is the IBM package considered a "rights waiver" lump sum payment? Or is it considered a weekly wage meaning I won't be able to collect unemployment until after it's exhausted? Thanks and good luck everyone... -IBMer no longer- Comment 3/27/09: Lee and team: Are you seeing more employees signing up? If you're reading this board, please consider joining Alliance. I did. It cost $10 a month. -Proud Alliance Member- Alliance reply: This week we gained 14 new members. 20 total for the month. Thanks to our new members. Let's add some more! Comment 3/27/09: What is happening to IBMers who were outsourced as part of the AT&T deal last year? I heard they were only guaranteed 1 year.. -Tony- Comment 3/27/09: So when does Palmicrapo and his brood move to India or China? Wouldn't it be FAIR if Palmicrapo is only compensated on how well his country (supposedly the USA) is doing in the global economy? -annonymous- Comment 3/27/09: Boycott IBM products NOW. Ignore their advertisements. Don't advertise their logo. Cover it up if you have to! -anonymous- Comment 3/27/09: Why should a $100,000,000,000+ corporation in 2008 qualify for any stimulus money? Like IBM needs a bailout or help. Hey IBM, why don't you pony up some $$$ to the USA economy since you are "supposedly" and American-based company (Armonk,NY is the USA)? -anonymous- Comment 3/26/09: Ok, you been right all along with the layoffs. Now how do we unite everyone and make a stand? Like a mini sickout with all USA employees? Whats next? -J.W.- Alliance reply: Look at our front page. (Moved this comment to Job Cuts Comments.) Comment 3/26/09: With GBS, just got laid off. Previous group I was with had 7 people laid off in one department. Funny thing is none of their jobs went to India. Theirs and mine went to Brazil and Argentina. Also everyone of the people that I know of that were laid off were over 55. What's wrong with this picture. -Mary- Comment 3/26/09: The government of Spain started an immigrant repatriation program to ease unemployment, which is nearing 15%. The government is offering financial assistance to immigrants, and guest workers, to return to their country of origin. Oddly enough, they want to provide jobs to their own citizens. -Newsflash- Comment 3/26/09: blacklisted , on the exit package the manager has the option to either recommend rehire or not for a dismissed employee. if you are fired you can not come back on ibm sites. if you are ra'd then if a good employee you would be allowed back as a S/C. if you pissed people off in the past you will not get back in as a S/C. -retired- Comment 3/25/09: IBM is using manpower to hire maint techs in poughkeepsie, yet they just laid off a whole bunch of people. WHAT SENSE IS THIS? I also applied to the position and they blacklisted me. So to any of you ex employees; they are doing the tactic of blacklisting people who worked in the ibm building. This is my second human rights case as of now. I plan to keep at em and give em hell til they can't take it no more. IBM IS SATAN! -blacklisted- Comment 3/25/09: I was let go from BCS in 2007, I'm shocked that there are any employees in the US left! -byebye- Comment 3/25/09: It seems like the drones on this board are fine with Ginni. Fine. So be it. I guess you like getting screwed in the A$$. Frankly Ginni is fodder for shows like Bill O'Rielly, on Fox news. He would have a field day ripping her a new one. Taking over $7 million per year for offshoring our jobs is a good deal in Sammy Palmacrapo's eyes. Sammy is saving a bundle and it is only costing him $7 million. Folks, this will keep happening until we stand up and fight. We need to bond together with a Union and take on these greedy ba$tards like Sammy and Ginni. Or is it Sammi and Ginny? It makes no difference. They are in bed together and screwing all of us. -IBMer- Comment 3/25/09: If you don't want to live in the middle of nowhere and decide not to show up for work until fired, that would count as being fired for cause. If you are fired for cause, the company does not have to pay unemployment benefits. -lookout- Comment 3/25/09: Lenovo is not IBM. It is cheap crap. Your a fool to buy anything from this product line. Even IBM walked away from it and Lenovo doesn't use IBM as a marketing thrust anymore to try to sell it's crap. Need I say any more about IBM? -IBMStinkpads?- Comment 3/24/09: Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately enough, this is the single most important feature average Americans are well known for around the World. History is hidden from you people on purpose. Your education system is designed to provide you with skill you need to succeed but your owners don’t want you to know history and learn from it. If you are getting fed up with your collapsing economy, disappearing middle class and corporate CEOs who treat you like dirt, why don’t you read up on history? What’s happening today has already happened before. Nothing in this World is granted. Sometime a revolution is required to right things. A new one is just around the corner. -European revolutionist- Comment 3/24/09: Another benefit taken away: Looks like home DSL/Cable/Internet expense will no longer be reimbursable as a monthly expense. Not sure how the notification will be rolled out to employees. As other posters have stated: looks like the work at home option is GONE. IMO, part of the problem is the HORRIBLE real estate decisions made by the RESO executives. How many IBM office site almost empty? -anon- Comment 3/23/09: "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." - Abe Lincoln -John- Comment 3/21/09: I'm mad as hell about Ginni Rometty. Here is the profile of Virginia "Ginni" Rometty. Age 50. "Virginia M. Rometty, Ginni serves as Managing Partner of IBM Business Consulting Services. Ms. Rometty serves as Senior Vice President Global Business Services of IBM Business Consulting Services and IBM Global Services (U.S.) and Senior Vice President of Global Sales & Distribution of International Business Machines Corp." Does that mean she is in charge of offshoring our jobs? And she makes over $7 million per year to boot. For what? What do we get for our $7 million per year? What does she contribute to the success of the IBM company? Does anyone know? I know she serves on the AIG board and hands out multi million dollar bonuses to executive crooks. What a joke. I say shit can Ginni Rometty from IBM. We don't need her!!!! -IBMer- Comment 3/21/09: Any reason why the website URL has changed to www.endicottalliance.org? -Curious- Alliance reply: Endicottalliance.org has always been our domain server. Allianceibm.org is an alias domain owned by CWA. When we made the upgrade to accomodate the high traffic several weeks ago, we changed the access default. No big deal. Comment 3/21/09: In regards to AIG Again: why are we not filing an injunction against their spending "our pension money" on Sun, bonuses, corporate jets and all until they restock the pension fund? -Also Want to Know- Comment 3/20/09: So IBM goes to DC to get a waiver on our pension payments (are we bankrupt, can't meet obligations?), pays big exec bonues, flies corporate jets and makes a $6.5B offer on Sun. -AIG Again?- Comment 3/20/09: IBM's new laptop upgrade program - pay for it yourself? http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/03/20/ibm_buy_us_computers_deal/ -none- Comment 3/20/09: Is it possible to somehow reach a large population of Sun employees before the transaction occurs? Has CWA made any efforts to organize Sun? There are concerns that the "merger" will result in job loss. One here from Boston: http://tinyurl.com/ct49bp -Think- Comment 3/1909: Maybe if IBM acquires Sun Microsystems then the Alliance will see a few thousand join up. If that is the case I say it will be good for an IBM union which we desperately need! IBMers since 1999 have for some stupid reasons haven't still caught on to the Alliance and that is a darn shame. When are these IBMers going to wake up and THINK TWICE about their plight and try to do something about it? -UnionYES- Comment 3/19/09: 'concerning IBM's bid of $6.5B cash to buy Sun. It's money better spent than a frickin' stock buyback that IBM regularly does to blow stockholder cash to make Sam and his posse richer than rich! At least it shows that IBM is INVESTING in technology and not all in it's friggin' executives wealth. And IBM can weed out the many paper pushers, lousy project managers, do and know nothing management who use their DVD tray for a coffee cup holder with some Sun techies with real skills! -anonymous- Comment 3/19/09: Poor Sun if they are sold to IBM. IBM will rape what is left of Sun. If McNeely is still around he better find some real estate in a BRIC country! -anonymous- Comment 3/18/09: I guess we still have enough money, even though the economy is doing so bad. Does it really make sense for us to spend $6.5B to buy Sun? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/18/ibm-sun-microsystems-deal_n_176242.html -anonymous- Alliance reply: Us? Who do you mean when you ask "Does it really make sense for us to spend $6.5B to buy Sun?"? I'm not totally sure about this; but I think the IBM Corporation is making a bid for SUN...not the stockholders or least of all, the employees. Comment 3/18/09: To -Out in 2005 and happy- I am typing this real slow so yourself and others will THINK. Obama, Democrats, Republicans etc have NO SAY in a private or public company's compensation. The only reason they can posture about AIG or GM or any others is because they have already given those companies YOUR MONEY and as such must appear to have some kind of oversight for the Trillions of dollars they have spent of YOUR MONEY. Unless the Federal Government Nationalizes IBM, That means takes them over and makes them a Government owned business, or bails them out with TAXPAYERS MONEY then they cannot tell IBM a damn thing as its none of their business. I do not say this to knock Obama or anyone else. I do not understand why people insist on calling an ex President names as if that justifies everything,like that solves all the worlds problems, Look we have someone to insult. All will be well now. It is not a political statement. It is a call to action for IBM 'ers worldwide . As far as people not knowing what goes on in companies that screw their employees. That's true. Even when they know they do not care. Every American IBMer since 1999 knows we were being screwed yet to date have done nothing about it. Within the company unless they felt they were getting screwed ,they did not care if the guy in the next cubicle was getting shafted as long as it was not them. If your own co workers don't care why would you think anyone else does??. Do not digress any of this into class warfare or Dems vs Reps. In my humble opinion the only thing greedier then a Wall Street executive is a Politician . Remember the definition of an Honest Politician. Once bought they stay bought. Unless the Alliance opens a political comments section I will stop here. Stop waiting for the Government or anyone else to do your work. Organize NOW. -Exodus2007- Comment 3/18/09: Apparently, Rometty is considering resigning from her AIG board position: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123740052940674301.html?mod=googlenews_wsj -- Comment 3/1809: The IBM-AIG link (posted by "disgusted") didn't work. For those who are interested, Virginia Rometty, an IBM Sr. VP (Global Sales & Distribution), was elected to the AIG board a few years ago. Interestingly, she's on the compensation & management resources committee and the nominating and corporate governance committees at AIG. -Think- Alliance reply: Sorry about that. We fixed the link today. Give it a try here: <LINK> Comment 3/18/09: Question? How come it's all right for some of the elite at companies to have an employment and compensation contract but then those employees wanting unions are looked at as destroying the companies. Example: CNBC. Surely all those on air people knocking unions have contracts. As well as all the cameramen and people that put the show on for them. Hypocritically they sit there and knock unions and employees wanting a fair wage and compensation. Fairness for all, I don't think so! -Hope- Alliance reply: Yes, and AIG is also making the same argument that their outrageous bonuses were written into their contract in 2008 or earlier; thereby making the outrage a moot point, in their minds. Yet, when the auto-workers union said the same thing, they were chastised for NOT making concessions to THEIR contract. Interesting double standard, to say the least. Comment 3/18/09: http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/18/technology/ibm_sun_microsystems.reut/index.htm?postversion=2009031807 ------------------------------------- IBM is thinking of buying SUN ------------------------------- An IBM Spokesman in Bangalore...!? Neal Watkins- Comment 3/18/09: Good or bad for Rochester / Austin? "IBM in talks to buy Sun Microsystems" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123735970806267921.html -Think- Comment 3/18/09: Time to out these greedy IBM execs. Here is the profile of Virginia "Ginny" Rometty. Age 50. "Virginia M. Rometty, Ginni serves as Managing Partner of IBM Business Consulting Services. Ms. Rometty serves as Senior Vice President Global Business Services of IBM Business Consulting Services and IBM Global Services (U.S.) and Senior Vice President of Global Sales & Distribution of International Business Machines Corp. Ms. Rometty served as the Senior Vice President of Enterprise Business Services-IBM Global Services of International Business Machines Corp. since ... July 2005 and served as its Senior Vice President of Global Business Services. Ms. Rometty served as Managing Partner - IBM Global Business Services of IBM Global Services (U.S.). Ms. Rometty is responsible for the strategy development for Global Services, including services assets initiatives and acquisitions. Ms. Rometty served as Managing Partner of Business Consulting Services, leading the formation of the industry's largest team of business consultants and services experts specializing in helping clients leverage world-class information technology to optimize business performance. Prior to this, she also served as General Manager of IBM Global Business Services, Americas. Ms. Rometty was responsible for strategic leadership, operations and client relationships of the Global Services business in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Ms. Rometty also served as General Manager of Strategy, Marketing and Sales Operations for IBM Global Business Services worldwide. Before IBM's services business, Ms. Rometty served as General Manager of IBM's Global Insurance and Financial Services Sector, where she led IBM's business strategy for the worldwide insurance marketplace, with responsibility for marketing, sales and consulting. She also supervised the operations of IBM's Insurance Research Centers in Hawthorne, N.Y. , Zurich, and Yamaha, and was in charge of IBM's insurance solutions development worldwide. Before she joined IBM, Ms. Rometty was with General Motors Corporation, where she was responsible for application and systems development. She also serves as a Member of IBM's strategy and operations teams. She is a leader in IBM's diversity initiatives, including the Women in Technology Council and the Women's Leadership Council and is one of the Senior Vice President sponsors of the Women's Executive Council at IBM. She is a frequent speaker at industry and business conferences around the world, and was named among Fortune Magazine's most influential women in business in 2004, and Time magazine's 2002 Global Business Influential. She has been Director of American International Group, Inc. since September 20, 2006. She serves as Director of APQC, a not-for-profit business research organization serving global companies for 30 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree with high honors in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University." Sounds like Ginny has spent her career working on her resume. LOL Note her annual compensation. Total Calculated Compensation $7,091,697 Note that she is also a Board member to AIG! BOARD
OF DIRECTORS MEMBERSHIPS* Comment 3/17/09: Exodus 2007--I have always respected your views and your comments, but I don't think you are giving our new President a chance. I know that at this point most of us have lost faith in the government--both political parties have certainly had their ups and downs, but on the other hand, I feel far better seeing Barack Obama, who may not be doing everything exactly the way we want, doing at least SOMETHING--which is a hell of alot better than our former George Bush did. Basically, he ignored all of the problems, he and his cronies hate labor--if you look at the laws that they upheld this is very obvious. I was upset to see Obama with Palmisano on TV weeks ago and sent him messages (along with many messages from members of my family), but on the other hand, he is standing up to these SOBs and their big bonuses and working to change laws to help the little guys, like you and me. And so are many of his democratic legislators. He's only been on the job for about 50 days and he has done more in that time that Bush and his idiots did in 8 years--except to ruin us! Look at SHRM.org. Lawsuits for age discrimination are going up--no longer do we have to fear a Republican legislature/court that will turn them down and side with big business. They are ALL attacking (both Republicans and Democrats) the AIG bonuses, and this is great. For one thing, the exposure alone is fantastic. I truly believe that there are millions of people in this country that in spite of their touting right-wing politics at one time truly had NO IDEA of how bad things are in companies where the executives are getting most of the rewards at the expense of employees who are being laid off. So, I think that to judge Obama and knock him now is a little premature. Let's wait--I think he WILL do something. He has already overturned many of the old 'Bush' laws and I believe he will continue to do so. You don't think he is getting flack from big corporations for mouthing off about executive bonuses??? I'm sure he is, but obviously, he doesn't care. He KNOWS right from wrong, and does not appear to be afraid of any of them. Their days are over. I'm convinced of this. Even as a shareholder (ridiculously small amount, however), I have NEVER seen any administration expose and condemn these thieves as Obama has, and believe me, it will make a difference. Even if some of the shareholders are making a few bucks, they are still losing plenty because of the high prices they pay these executives--only I don't think many of them even realized how lousy the situation was until now--now that it is all coming out into the open. I really hope they reveal the names of the guys in AIG who will receive bonuses--and their addresses. It would be nice to see one of them at the local supermarket and give them a good 'pop in the chops,' at the very least! They should be running for their lives right now, and I truly believe many other executives will be feeling the same way soon--ashamed, for themselves, and for their families. They are the minority. Obama is letting them know that and I think this is only the beginning. They should all take their stolen pension money and get the hell out of this country now for their own sakes and the sakes of their family members who should also be disgraced by their disgusting greed. I am so glad I am out of that company. They are truly pathetic. -Out in 2005 and happy- Comment 3/17/09: To -retired- I am also retired , I retired in 2007, thus Exodus2007. I am beginning to believe its Stockholm syndrome where the kidnapped person starts to side with their kidnappers. Folks lined up in the slaughter chute moving forward one step at a time and still they will not band together. I put up with the harrasment and the stress years longer then I would have if I had not had a real defined pension waiting for me. A person I met was telling me about his pension from his union being 50 bucks a month for every year of service. Mine worked out to be that exactly. He worked on a Domino sugar assembly line. It seems like such a small amount but it adds up nicely as opposed to nothing. I spent at least half of my career working for an IBM that cared about me and even my family. Family dinners, Quarter century club luncheons every 5 years once you were in. Day in the Sun . Family outings. Now they have nothing. Just stress and angst. Yet they accept it . The best I can hope for is one of my button pushes resets their minds and they all stand up and shout no more. As a collective unit. As a UNION. -Exodus2007- Comment 3/17/09: IBM exec on board of Directors of AIG <LINK> -disgusted- Comment 3/17/09: -Exodus2007- i gotta admit you keep pushing the right buttons but it seems that the people don't want to follow. i find that when people get fired or retire they just leave and don't look back. keep trying -retired- Comment 3/16/09: To >>-lookout- >> Remember that you can "NOT MOVE" and NOT VOLUNTARILY QUIT; just don't show up until they fire you. You will be paid for that time too. -no_ky- Comment 3/16/09: -Mule Skinner- Not a bad idea but IBM controls how much ESPP shares they offer in the pool for employees. Executives and board members hold more stock than employees. Employees would have to really buy a bunch of stock shares on their own and I don't see this trend happening. What stockholding employees need is to band together with some inistitutional stockholders who have the employee and lobor interests in mind for IBM. -anonymous- Comment 3/15/09: To -no_ky- Of course they are influanced by the CEO and President of the Corporation, Not the President of the country. The Ceo and President hand pick them and use their voting shares to ensure their cronies are in place to give them fat raises etc. Thats my point exactly. The only way we get to eat at the table is a union. -Exodus2007- Comment 3/14/09: Exodus2007: You are absolutely right. I would probably be one of those stupid fools sitting there waiting for the aliens at Roswell. Obama can't do anything about Sammy. Sammy is in bed with Obama. Sammy wants a piece of the stimulus action like smart grid technology. That will just line Sammy's pockets even more. Sammy doesn't give two shits about the IBM employees. We need to get that union going. Thank you for supporting the Alliance. Hopefully your message with get through others thick skulls like it did mine. Peace bro. -IBMer- Comment 3/13/09: Common guys...SAM is minting money ? kidding me ? He has only 100M after working his a** off for 30 freaking years in IBM. Do you have any idea how much money Madoff made by just deposting Investors money in Chase Bank ? 800 Miliion. Pl leave SAM alone. He is a poor guy. Give him some slack. Do you want to see your CEO poorer than Madoff ? -Sam_Is_Poor- Comment 3/13/09: After a decade of encouraging working from home, IBM is now trying to force people back into offices. This is so they can force people to live in remote "hinterlands" where the cost of living is lower and they can pay peanuts for wages. Working from home can obviously be done from higher-cost, more popular locations. Those who refuse to move to the middle of nowhere will likely face an ultimatum: move or voluntarily quit, thereby giving up the right to unemployment benefits. -lookout- Comment 3/13/09: Many IBMers are stockholders. Suppose we created a mutual fund consisting only of employee stockholders, with the fund holding only IBM stock. This would not add up to a majority of the company by any means, but it would be a large enough holding to get attention. We might even have enough to justify a seat on the board! Oh – and the union manages the fund, so they get to occupy the seat. -Mule Skinner- Comment 3/13/09: Re Sam's bonus.. Obama wants executives to be paid for performance but then he said there would be a cap of $500K unless he meant that just for banking executives! -goneandhappy- Comment 3/13/09: To>>-Exodus2007- >>>You obviously have been reading the documents about how a CEO's pay is determined and have NEVER been on a BOD. They are highly influenced by the current CEO and PRESIDENT until the sh.t hits the fan in mass. -no_ky- Comment 3/11/09: See what the Poughkeepsie NY Journel reports about Sams bonus: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090311/BUSINESS01/903110332 -Anonymous- Comment 3/11/09: Sounds like Sam is far beond the 100 milliion dollar man with 22 million salary ,13 variable pay and stock receipts of over 80 M. With additional incentives of letting its own US employee's go ! (blood money) Why didn't he donate a million or so to keep its valuable employee resource working at IBM East Fishkill NY.. Greed ! One, of the seven deadly sins ... -Crying Shame- Comment 3/11/09: Has everyone contacted their senators in support of 'card check'? -John- Comment 3/11/09: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20090311/BUSINESS01/903110332/1003/business&referrer=NEWSFRONTCAROUSEL -Sanson- Comment 3/10/09: Everyone was talking http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090310/BIZ/903100310 at work this morning. -Anon- Comment 3/10/09: "IBM chief's 2008 pay valued at nearly $21M" This is shameful. How can Sammy screw us all in the A$$ like this and take so much money from IBM? President Obama must put a stop to this. This is not right. A CEO of a public company should not make this kind of money. Sammy did not start IBM. Sammy should not be paid like he owns the company. Sammy should act like a man and a leader and show some respect to IBM employees. Making $21 Million in one year for someone promoted to their position is shameful. No wonder he is such an A$$hole -IBMer- Comment 3/10/09: http://www.insidetech.com/news/articles/4221-ibm-scrutinized-for-layoff-practices?referral=IT_nlet_20090305_all -Anonymous- Comment 3/10/09: IBM chief's 2008 pay valued at nearly $21M - IBM says CEO Palmisano's 2008 pay valued at nearly $21M, barely higher than previous year (Headline from March 9th AP article). Here is a link to the article: http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/090309/ibm_executive_compensation.html?.v=2&printer=1 -MyThoughts- Comment 3/09/09: Band together, start your own company with the other 5000 people. There is enough talent there. Why don't you contact your Senator or Congressman and get preferential Government work? -Vittoria- Comment 3/09/09: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/big-blues-contrarian-manifesto/ "Big Blue’s Contrarian Manifesto" -Think- Comment 3/08/09: -IBMer- Black family in the white house is cool. The swingset is an absolute must and is probably the best investment made so far because living in the white house steals the childrens childhood and the greatest swingset in the world is deserved. And we agree on the spending bill. Just saw on meet the press that 92 percent of us still have jobs and 92 percent are still making mortgage payments. Are we bankrupting the economy for 8 percent trying to reach 100 percent that will never be reached? Good luck to us all -Exodus2007- Comment 3/07/09: From the NY Times and CNBC newswire: "Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chief executive, said that while other companies were cutting back, his would not. “Most importantly, we will invest in our people,” he wrote. "But the next day, more than 1,400 employees in I.B.M.’s sales and distribution division in the United States and Canada were told their jobs would be eliminated in a month." Investing in our people?!? Sam and Randy have gotten rid of hundreds of 25+ quarter century club IBMers in the past year and including this year so far. To be employed for 25 years in IBM you must have proven your worth, right? And now to be given 30 days and out the door what investment in the person is that Slammy Palmicrapo? For those that were not IBM veterans or haven't been RA'ed (yet): Nice raise last year? 0% raise or close to it. For some it was a -15% raise. Investing in our people?!? Why are you all so quiet at work and walking on eggshells, fearful and so afraid you'll be next to go? Is IBM truly investing in your future? I'm glad the Alliance is exposing the IBM CEO and HR head. Maybe now the press is getting the real message. -anonymous- Comment 3/07/09: Exodus2007:" When you respond please name one or two "REAL CHANGES" Obama said he would bring. All I have heard is Change, Hope, Yes we can. But no details ." Well frankly the only real change I see right now is that we have a black family in the white house, a cool wood swing set for their two kids on the side lawn, and a spending bill that will most likely bankrupt and cripple this country. The real change that you are seeing is typical democrat spending. Plain and simple. I hope Obama is right and this works. I want him to succeed, too. But if he doesn't succeed he will probably go down in history as one of the biggest failures of an American President. All talk and more spending. Time will tell. Peace bro. -IBMer- Comment 3/07/09: Wheres the outrage IBMers? ALL of your personal data is now in Manila. Your NAME, SOCIAL SECURITY #, AGE,ADDRESS, MARTIAL STATUS, DEPENDENTS, EVERYTHING. This to save a few dollars while guess what , none of the officers private data resides there. Rumors of identity theft are surfacing. ALL IBMers should be calling their lawyers. -toxic plume man- Comment 3/06/09: Great Job! (New York Times article this morning) Clearly this would not have been exposed without your very excellent work. Congratulations! -Jane Reader- Comment 3/06/09: HOO RAY!! FINALLY SOMEONE IS CALLING THEM ON IT!! Three CHEERS TO THE ALLIANCE AND TO THE NEW YORK TIMES! Sam and his gang are finally being OUTTED!! WHOOPPEEE!!! -Anonymous- Comment 3/04/09: I think its a great idea just give it some time. It didnot happen over night. -anonymous- Comment 3/03/09: To _IBMer_ Thats a very Presidential image. A young black male chasing an old white man around a golf course with a 5 iron. I wonder if Sams personal bodyguards or the secret service will win the battle in the sand trap. President Obama arrested today in New York charged with assault with intent to kill. DUH. By the way I am not cynical. I am just not delusional . Because a Chicago politition who is a lawyer can read a teleprompter well, talk a good story and look good doing it does not mean he can actually do everything he says. Should I believe him just because he is Black? Not gonna happen. I don\'t believe Biden just because he is white! I in fact do not believe a word that passes through his lying mouth. See Joe Biden is an admitted Plagurist. The president and congress could not give a rats ass if IBM\'s CEO's abuse employees. I did not write that to knock Obama. I truly hope he succeeds. That he helps stabilize the world economy without America footing the whole bill. That he keeps America safe . That he maintains good foreign relations. That he kicks the UN out of New York and sends it to France so they can pay for it for a while. NO PRESIDENT will ever become involved with stopping a CEO from abusing his employees. If no laws are being broken and in todays day and age unless IBM asks for Bailout money to stay in Business no one in the Governmeny cares about IBM employees. No I take that back. IBM employees who make LARGE contributions to campaign funds will get some recognition. Like SAM and his top executives. Your whole years salary and mine would not be a blip on their give a shit radar. As I have stated before. CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN . NONE. I will believe it when I see it. Just like my last three pay raises. TJ Watson and his son were benevolent. Since then its been dog eat dog . When IBM brought in an outsider, King Louis I , all hell broke loose. Once he set the precedent nothing but a union will stop it. When you respond please name one or two "REAL CHANGES" Obama said he would bring. All I have heard is Change, Hope, Yes we can. But no details . By not giving details people were left to their own imaginations as to what change he would bring. Listened to the same bullshit from IBM Managers for thirty years and never saw a damn thing change on their end. Just more shit taken away from me. Remember. In business you get what you negotiate and not one thing more. Peace to you also and good luck in these terrible times. -Exodus2007- Comment 2/27/09: Exodus2007: You are very cynical. You don't believe in President Obama? Get with the program. Sammy and his executives have been raping the IBM company. The only time Obama will see Sammy at the golf course is to knock some sense in him with a 5 iron. Sammy has been abusing IBM employees for years. His days are numbered. Sammy should not be making more money than President Obama. Plain and simple. You will see change that Obama has been talking about. Real change. Bush was never poor so he didn't know what it was like to be an IBM grunt trying to make a living and feed the family. President Obama knows. President Obama understands. You will see real change in this country from this day forward. Sammy is going down. The abuse of IBM employees will stop. President Obama supports unions. Pledge some money to the Alliance if you want to do something positive. By the way, my name is IBMer, not "to the person who wrote". Peace bro. -IBMer- Alliance Note: FYI.. Exodus2007 is a supporter of Alliance@IBM. Please take this discussion to General Visitor Comments. Comment 2/26/09: To the person who wrote "I just watched President Obama adress the joint session of Congress. He is going after the greedy CEO's raking in the millions and millions like Sammy Palmacrapo. Sammy has been laying off tens of thousands of US IBMers and outsourcing our jobs. President Obama will put a stop to this insanity, Sammy. Praise be Jesus!!!! Sammy, look out you A**hole. President Obama is out to get you. You greedy slimey b*****d!!! -IBMer-" What you saw was a political speech. No truth involved in it but it sure sounds good. The only way he will go after SAM who has a profitable company is if Sam has an earlier TEE time. In case you have not caught on, Making Ceo's poorer will not make you richer. They are two different things. A contract with defined raises and pensions and healthcare may make you richer but Sam losing a million or two in extra taxes surely will not. Some examples of lies: The nation that invented auto's was Germany. Henry Ford invented the assembly line. Ever increasing oil imports for the past 20 years have actually been declining since 2005. I am going to tax the carbon footprints of power companies to force investment in more expensive renewable sources like solar and wind. Guess who ultimately pays any corporate tax. The consumers who buy the corporations goods. US! WE passed a stimulus bill with no earmarks! I guess pet projects like high speed rail between Los Angeles and Las Vegas are not earmarks. Kinda like depends on your definition of the word " is " . Let those evil Bush tax cuts for the rich expire. I am not rich and yet I got the full check ammount. Bet you did too. I doubt that ANY of us on this board make over 250,000 a year. So an expired tax cut is really a tax HIKE. Congress and the corrupt polititions are the true greedy bastards. Stop waiting for them to turn on their fellow country club members. Pelosi and Feinstien fly private jets to DC from California. They will not fly commercial with the stinking masses. But they will scream at CEO's for doing the same thing they do. Wake up and smell the pinkslips. Only help you are going to get saving your jobs is your co workers uniting. Society is not a SEE SAW. Lowering someone else does not raise you up. Do not fall for the Class warfare bullshit. Help yourselves. -Exodus2007- Comment 2/25/09: Several years ago I was really getting stressed about my job. It was killing me. My wife found this somewhere and emailed it to me. I printed it and read it often. I have passed it around to others and many have said it has made them really sit and think about what is important. I hope maybe it can help someone reading these comments. The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes." The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed. "Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else---the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. "Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand." One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked.” It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, “there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend." Please share this with someone you care about. I JUST DID ;) -Still Ducking- Comment 2/25/09: ibmer somehow i don't see PO pushing away ibm . in fact i bet there is a deal in the making with ibm in a few different areas. it will be interesting to see how this plays out. -retired- Comment 2/25/09: Sounds like this "corporate blackmail" is IBM http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/25/1615207 -nunya- Comment 2/24/09: Things just got a lot tougher here in Austin - except for the execs of course.... ------------------------------------- http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/theticker/entries/2009/02/24/spansion_restores_executive_pa.html -------------------------------------- Spansion restores executives to full pay By Kirk Ladendorf | Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 11:10 AM While Spansion Inc. was cutting 35 percent of its workforce, or 3,000 jobs on Monday, the company’s board was restoring full pay to its top executives. The company had imposed a 10 percent pay cut last Oct. 6 for top executives. But in a securities filing, it said it was returning the executives to full pay as part of an “employee retention program.” Laid-off Spansion workers told the American-Statesman Monday that they received no severance pay. Spansion employed about 1,200 workers in Austin before Monday’s cuts. Workers said they were told the company will pay part of their health insurance costs for the next several months. The company said the downsizing would cost it $25 million, but would save it $225 million in reduced operating costs over the next year. Workers noted that former CEO Bertrand Cambou was paid a full year’s base salary (just over $751,000) plus a four-month consulting fee when he resigned suddenly at the end of January. Spansion is seeking a buyer as it fights a worldwide glut and falling prices for flash memory chips. -Neal Watkins- Comment 2/24/09: I just watched President Obama adress the joint session of Congress. He is going after the greedy CEO's raking in the millions and millions like Sammy Palmacrapo. Sammy has been laying off tens of thousands of US IBMers and outsourcing our jobs. President Obama will put a stop to this insanity, Sammy. Praise be Jesus!!!! Sammy, look out you A**hole. President Obama is out to get you. You greedy slimey b*****d!!! -IBMer- Comment 2/21/09: To retired: Maybe Sammy isn't losing money because he is sheding so many US jobs (i.e. 10's of thousands) and hiring overseas. Pretty soon there will be no US employees left in IBM. It looks to me like there is going to be a war in this country. The hard working class getting laid off against the greedy rich selfish corporate a**holes like Sammy; who are stiffing us all in the a** and walking away with millions and millions of our hard earned money in their base salary, stock options, bonuses, perks, etc. I've had it with these greedy corporate a**holes. -IBMer- Comment 2/20/09: anon, this email is the primer to make sure that the employee's have been notified about potential open positions. it is also a legal requirement. i suspect that the manager didn't need anyone to raise their hand. so considering no one offered to take the bait you are now a canidate for the upcoming RA. good luck -retired- Comment 2/20/09: Just got email from our mgr yesterday if we were "interested" in going to work at the Dubuque GDF. I personally don't think he received any responses on it. -anon- Comment 2/19/09: ibmer if sam was loosing money, i would agree with you; but he is not. it seems the ceo's that are loosing money are giving up their bonus. they don't want to; but are doing it to make people feel better and to keep their jobs -retired- Comment 2/18/09: Why isn't Sammy stepping up to the plate during this economic crisis? Why isn't he stepping forward and forfeting is 2008 bonus? I saw on the news today that Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, is not taking his 12 milion dollar 2008 bonus. Congrats to Jeff!!! Sammy needs to take a lesson from Jeff. Sammy is still the slime ball greedy bastard that he always was even though thousands of IBMers are getting laid off losing their jobs and can't feed their families. Sammy with all his personal wealth could probably feed thousands of needy families. Sammy doesn't give a crap. He is a greedy S.O.B. and just wants to hoard his millions all for himself. -IBMer- Comment 2/16/09: Don't believe in Unions? Great things can happen when people band together: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." -Joe Punchclock- Comment 2/16/09: I have sent the following to whitehouse.gov; astrongmiddleclass.gov; Sen McConnell; Sen Bunning; Rep Chandler; Gov Beshear; DOL Inspector General; DOL department of statistics; Bill O'Reily; Lou Dobbs; and will send to ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, anyone I can think of: I’m
writing to you today because I’m concerned about rising unemployment
and the affects on hard working American families. Comment 2/13/09: Don't believe in unions but at least I pay to read....so if u r reading and did not donate, get up off your 5 bucks a month. Fill the pot or get off it. -Pay 4 what u read- Comment 2/13/09: Write all your Congress Critters. A real easy way to do it is to go here: http://www.nrln.org/ Enter your zip code in the box at the upper right. Fill in your info (it will remember you) and follow the link to "Write to all...with one click.". This is much easier than going to the individual critter websites. -Neal Watkins- Comment 2/12/09: After 10 years I've had enough of IBM's nefarious human resource policies. I've heading to the exit. Trust big blew to ever do the right thing by its people? Never. Think I'd survive 20 years to make it to retirement? Not a chance. If you really want to see the greed of IBM management, check out the latest insider transactions in IBM stock on 1 February. Thousands of 0 cost stock grants, one third immediately turned to cash at market value. Funny, I don't remember any of those people on the numerous midnight outage calls last year when GR resources trashed IGA. -Anywhere But IBM- Comment 2/11/09: Shortcut to contact your member in the US House of Representatives. https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml -Drain plug- Comment 2/11/09: Message = "I am saddened that they no longer value a well educated mind." You might want to visit: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/12/16/literacy. During the past 10 years, more and more college students are getting degrees without having to be very literate. -anonymous- Alliance note: This was moved from Job Cuts Comments. Comment 2/11/09: Lack of a degree does not = stupid. -Ron- Alliance note: This was moved from Job Cuts Comments. Comment 2/09/09: We need more people like that person years who at RTP displayed posters protesting IBM! He must have been fired since if he still was in IBM at RTP I bet he would still be doing what he once did. Most IBMers now have a short, if any , remembering span. IBM luvs it just this way. Keeps you sheep unherded, unflocked and ripe to be picked off by IBM the big bad predator. Was he WRONG? He is more right than almost all of you in RTP. Yes, if you folks joined him maybe more folks in RTP would not have been recently RA'ed. But without joining hime IBM can RA all of you guys in RTP. -anonymous- Comment 2/08/09: I used to work up the road from IBM a few years ago in Research Triangle Park, NC. There was a protestor there a few times a month, with long pole signs warning about IBM's exportation of jobs overseas. Everyone I spoke to who worked at IBM called him a nut and he was always alone out there in front of the entrance to IBM in RTP. My question is why is it that no one will stand up for a cause until their own paychecks are at risk? Why was he alone? I know that all the RTP employees know exactly who and what I am talking about. You see, if you guys who at that time were gainfully employed had stuck up for his righteous cause, perhaps management would not be in such a powerful position to hide in their endeavors. -Anonymous- Comment 2/08/09: Hi. Your corporate employers are screwing you. 1) why do you vote keep voting for the same corrupt republican and democrat politicians who are supposed to represent you in the various institutions. instead of defending those same employers who are screwing you? 2) why didn't you guys vote for ralph nader, He is on the workers side? 3) why don't you go do mass protest on the streets of your country, just like we do here in europe? 4) stop complaining and get off your couch and go protest on the streets 5) if there are so many millions of americans hurting, why don't you create a political party to represent yourselves, rather than depend on the 2 existing corrupt political parties, which have been "bought" by corporate america. 5) why don't you boycott all corporate america's products? These are more effective tools and actions than just whining in blogs. -european viewer- Comment 2/08/09: When is the Employee Free Choice Act going to be voted on and passed? President Obama are you pushing it? -EFCA- Alliance reply: Don't wait for EFCA to be passed before you join the union. First: President Obama can't 'push' for it. He CAN sign it , once the bill comes to his desk. He has said in the past, that he WOULD sign it, if it came to his desk. Second: The bill has to travel through the House and Senate once again. It passed through the House in 2006(?) but was fillibustered in the Senate and failed, that same year (?). That process may take more time, this time around, because the bill will be lowered down the ladder of prioirity. Alliance@IBM CWA absolutely recommends that you support it; but don't sit and wait for it to be passed and not act on your own. A new law that makes it easier to join a union, isn't going to sign you up...YOU have to do that and get your co-workers signed up too. Comment 2/07/09: I was a part of the January '09 layoff. SWG, Lotus, Atlanta Support center closed BUT some people remain and will report to other centers remotely. -HK- Comment 2/06/09: Please check this link and fill out the TAA application. Our jobs are going overseas and we should get all the free training we can get. http://www.doleta.gov/tradeact/petitions.cfm#1 Response to citizen: I for one need health benefits and if the salary reduction is shared by all it might be a stop gap to layoffs. Unemployment insurance benefits is less than half my pay. I'd rather take a small reduction rather than a 50% reduction in pay. It might not be a popular stance but If you need a job in this near depression then so be it. -EFK'ed- Comment 2/06/09: Re reducing hours: EFK'd -- How much reduction would be acceptable? Does your calculation extend to benefits? (e.g. half the hours and half the health insurance) -citizen- Comment 2/05/09: Check this link out, Instead of RA'ing everyone. Reduce hours for us poor folk trying to make ends meet. http://www.labor.state.ny.us/agencyinfo/sharedworkpr.shtm -EFK'd- Comment 2/04/09: to adobt-a-plant, Well IBM BTV apparently prototyped in 2 buildings a system where employees have to bring there office trash to centralized locations. There was a note that this was going to be rolled out across more buildings. Not sure what's next ....They put in showers, so maybe we'll have kitchenettes and bunk beds in our offices and pay rent too. -donein2009- Comment 2/04/09: I just heard Obama capped executive compensation at 500k for any company receiving bailout money. Bet Sammy suddenly does not need govt money. -Exodus2007- Comment 2/04/09: I'm a 25+ year employee with IBM and I just joined! Please everyone -we need to unite! -anon- Comment 2/03/09: Insight on how the company plans to innovate in a rough economy, with Sam Palmisano, IBM chairman & CEO, and CNBC's Maria Bartiromo http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1020690058&play=1 -huh??? crappo on TV- Alliance reply: Maria Bartiromo is not pro-labor and neither is CNBC. They are Wall Street lackeys. They will love everything Sam Palmisano says. They are not worth watching or listening to, if you're a working person losing your job and fresh from losing your 401k to the Wall Street geniuses that bought into mortgage securities. I don't think it's insight...it's more like myopia with rose colored glasses. Comment 2/03/09: To Beat Up: Ahhhh, in the face of a horrible situation in SBY, the cream will rise to the top and the heroes will be rewarded. You have to have a sense of humor, even these days. Thanks for the chuckle. -RetiredIn06- Comment 2/03/09: Thank God your website is back up! IBM tells us nothing. They are hiding how many folks are getting RA'ed. Aty least the Alliance is there to get the word out. IBM's motto is "TRUST and RESPONSIBILTY in ALL RELATIONSHIPS" Sure IBM. Tell me the sun sets in the east... Keep up the good work! -anonymous- Comment 2/03/09: SBY power hit. Mgrs are in a frenzy. Ha Ha Ha. Let's see how India or Brazil get this mess cleaned up. -Beat Up- Comment 2/02/09: -Mule Skinner- Re adopt-a-plant: the point is this is a very minimal cost and it shows the desperate measures being taken. -adoptionDesperation- Comment 2/02/09: Re adopt-a-plant: I think this is a good thing. Here IBM is shutting down a cost that is not mission-critical. -Mule Skinner- Comment 1/31/09: This will make you laid off IBMer;s happy. Disbursements area just got finished paying SAM'S West Chester Country Club membership. "ONLY" 150,000 dollars. -Travel Accountant- Comment 1/31/09: alliance: i feel for anyone who loses their job but in the case of a contractor it is a known risk. i was a contractor in my early years and would work as many hours as i could get. i always knew that the job could be terminated whenever the company wanted. in fact twice i walked in on a friday and was told to take my stuff and leave because the contract was just canceled. so this is a known liability and you need to be ready for it. -retired- Alliance Reply: Hello Big Blue or is it John or lifeisgoot? Did you think we didn't know who you were? Comment 1/31/09: Concerning Obama's meeting with Sam: Use this opportunity to FLOOD the White House, AStrongMiddleClass.org, and your Congressmen with what you KNOW about how IBM has been treating employees and the middle class over the past 8 years: In Lexington KY, we have been forced to train our foreign replacements for years; they have off-shored HUNDREDS of jobs; for years they have had us train India/Brazil/Argentina for NEW work (in addition to what has been offshored); they have used OUR labor to prop up the off shore sites (how many times have you had to be on crit sit calls for accounts OWNED by India?); Don't forget Lou Gerstner\'s robbing pension fund profits when wall street was booming and reporting it as vapor profit; They continue to co-mingle Executive retirement funds in OUR pension accounts. SOUND OFF and be heard. This is our opportunity. TELL WASHINGTON EVERYTHING YOU KNOW...IF IT'S LEGAL AND ETHICAL, IBM WON'T MIND EVERYBODY KNOWING. IT'S TIME FOR A LITTLE FORCED TRANSPARANCY !!! -Fed Up- Comment 1/31/09: MIKE you were a contractor that was hired to do a job and at a lower cost to IBM. I find it hard to believe that you did not understand this when you took the job. That is why IBM and other companies hire contractors. -retired- Alliance reply: Contractors are going through a rough time just like regular IBM employees. They and their families are suffering from job cuts just like IBMers. Comment 1/31/09: The real simple solution to Wall Street bonuses is to make all such payments in company stock. If the company fails, then the people who help it fail share the pain. If the company recovers, then the employees get the benefit of the recovery. -Anonymous- Comment 1/31/09: The MBPS and GBS yearly kickoff meetings have stated that they are looking to get stimulus money from the government. Are you surprised and outraged that a $100,000,000,000 corporations needs more millions or billions handed to them by the US government under the guise of using it to improve the USA economy by recently adding thousands of technology workers to the USA unemployment rolls? -anonymous- Comment 1/30/09: Hey Union Now.... you think that eliminating the ENTIRE EMERGENCY CONTROL Department seems a bit drastic? In RTP, they eliminated indoor potted plant services and announced an Adopt-a-Plant program in an attempt to get remaining employees to care for the plants. Now that's drastic. Yes, ibm is in deep trouble. Next up, Adopt-a-Stall. -Adopt_this- Comment 1/30/09: Is there a private forum for members? id be more comfortable talking about the political BS at work and btw, Ive read people on here saying "there's life after IBM", remember some of us are bottom of the food chain in MFG. The "skills" we have basically only apply to another FAB job. -....- Comment 1/30/09: Just remember, Obama is a citizen of the world so he has an obligation to provide job growth in countries like Africa, etc. He has to favor offshoring to some degree. If not then he would have been lying about being a citizen of the world. And Obama wouldn't lie would he? -citizenofw- Comment 1/30/09: It is an outrage to see President Obama with Samuel Palmisano. IBM's CEO is the worst offender of offshoring jobs..... what a joke.. I wish I would have voted for McCain at this point -outraged- Alliance Reply: Don't be outraged with Obama, quite yet. He merely met with Sam. Today, he met with Labor and signed 3 executive orders to reverse Federal anti-union and anti-worker practices that were enacted by Bush. Obama is an organizer and pro-labor. If McCain got elected; we'd be in a lot worse shape, and McCain would have bent right over for Sam. Let's wait and see what comes of these meetings. Comment 1/29/09: I am assuming that I am now viewing your site on your new server. But it appears that you have set the screen size to a very high level because I can not read the comments without scrolling from left to right on every line. I never had to do that before. -Frequent Visitor- Comment 1/29/09: In today's paper, it was confirmed EFK eliminated the ENTIRE EMERGENCY CONTROL Department. These responders know the buildings, know the work conditions.http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090129/BIZ/901290341/-1/BIZ2102 This seems a bit drastic. Could the financial condition be even worse than we imagine? Let everyone you know this site exists. Tell you co-workers to remember how this last month has made us, our friends, community and families all feel. Never forget. Do SOMETHING...UNION NOW!! -Union Now!!!- Comment 1/29/09: Sam and Obama meet. Sam likes the push for more technolgy. Sam sees software from India , hardware from China and administration done from Mexico. IndiansBuddhistsMexicans.. -dale- Comment 1/29/09: Sponsor a CEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbf6o8NBE... -PleaseHELPthisCause- Comment 1/29/09: I also am an RA victim in 07. I went to the white house web site and let them know that SP is probably responsible for more offshoring and loss of American Jobs then any other Active CEO. Please join me in this, let them know.... SAMMY SUCKS! -Paulie- Comment 1/28/09: I worked as a Helpdesk contractor at the IBM Fishkill site in NY for over 5 years. Family responsibilities prevented me from travelling further from home to get another job. I was always blown away by the disparity in my pay VS IBMers, although I had nothing against them, personally. Their base pay was higher than mine and when I worked weekends(for 2 years), I received base pay while they received Time and a Half for Saturdays and Double for Sundays. While the pretense was that I was not an IBM employee, the reality was that I was managed on a day to day basis by an IBM Team Lead. The totality was a sham where IBM pretended that I wasn't their employee in order to pay me less and not have me on their headcount, while at the same time maintaining day to day operational management of me. I felt that this was a violation of the concept(but not law) of equal pay for equal work and approached a Labor attorney with about 6 of my fellow contractors. We were told that Permatemping was not illegal since we agreed to it when we went to work for IBM...I mean the Contract Company. Before working there, I had never seen anything like this, such a thinly veiled sham and pretense for IBM to maintain a large contingent of disposable labor. I have nothing against being let go if I don't perform, but I will never again demean myself by working in such a situation. Will the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act prevent this kind of thing in the future? There is not question but that Contracting, as I saw it practiced at IBM in Fishkill was nothing more than cheaper pay for contractors over IBMers for exactly the same work. -Mike- Comment 1/28/09: To -Didnt_Drink_the_Kool_Aid- Thanks for posting the info about the book "Who Moved My Cheese". I went looking for it online and found it here: Who Moved My Cheese To whoever is interested. The book is incredible and worth reading. Its fast reading, you can finish it on your lunch hour, and I guarantee it will change your outlook on things. -Last One Standing- Alliance Reply: IBM had captive audience meetings and showed the video version of this book in the late 1990's. Comment 1/28/09: Obama is just a puppet ran by Wall Street executives. There will never be "Change", until a 3rd party independent is elected into office. It's going to get worse, check out George Celente (http://www.trendsresearch.com/), most of his predictions have came true and he knows his stuff. Obama and IBM will do nothing for you get used to it. People will keep buying Obama's myths and are superjaded to think that IBM is going to help. Want change? Get rid of the republican and democrats and elect a real leader who won't stab you in the back after shaking your hand with a smile. -ex STG- Comment 1/28/09: Anyone see Palmisano on Foxnews with the other CEO's and Obama talking about job creation? Guess that says it all doesn't it... -Leaving on 2-21- Comment 1/28/09: I went to the Whitehouse website and posted this letter in the contact us section to the President (its a nice web site!) I have a feeling though, that if he makes offshoring a no-no, then more people will lose jobs..I just don't know. -------------------------------- Dear Mr. President. I have to say I was horrified to see your picture in the New York Times on in the news next to the Sam Palmisano the CEO if IBM. I had to train my replacement over seas twice at IBM before getting laid off and then once at GSK. It is totally degrading and it is still happening. Please tell me that you gave Mr. Palmisano a good chewing-out about off shoring jobs. -PW- Comment 1/28/09: IBMers who work in or for Silicon Valley-based depts. are being hard hit by layoffs, too. They also use contractors to avoid paying benefits. I work through one of those contractors, making 1/3 of what I used to earn for twice the skills required (doing two jobs, basically). They take 36% of what I make and are required to kick back 9% of that to IBM! -anonymous- Comment 1/27/09: LTD is considered as resigning. it is in the documents that you signed. -retired- Comment
1/26/09:
I
am an IBMer who just went on LTD, and was shocked to find out that an
LTD is treated as a termination. Nothing in the LTD documentation online
mentioned anything about LTD as termination... does anybody have any
experience with this? -anonymous-
Comment
1/26/09:
The
360 review was nice, but pretty obvious why they did away with it. Poor
performers were getting high reviews because they'd use a friend who
wouldn't speak negatively of them. The current PBC assessment is bogus
as well. First lines rely on team leads for a majority of the input.
If you're not a brown noser, or challenge the team leads direction you're
pretty much stuck with a 2 or 3. -waiting_for_the_axe-
Comment
1/26/09:
I'm
an IBM employee who is interested in the union but have major reservations.
As an example I'm pasting some text recently on the front page and commenting
in (parens) the parts I wouldn't support. I think that many at IBM can
see the need for some of what a union does, but wouldn't support the
bureaucracy and rules of a traditional union -- let dues and union stuff
be optional -- when things get bad the union will get funded.
Alliance@IBM CWA Local 1701 outlined several steps IBM should take to maintain quality jobs and service and address the company’s financial picture: * IBM
must make every effort to save jobs. (support) Comment
1/26/09:
What
a I think a union would be like: The law provides a procedure for employees
to indicate interest and subsequently vote on having a union. I suppose
anyone can look that up and I think it has been discussed frequently
so I don’t need to detail it here. Assuming a union is voted in,
then the members have to organize it and create rules for its operation.
This means electing officers and figuring out something about dues and
so on. (Actually it starts with deciding what offices we should even
have, and then electing people to fill those roles.) Then we get to
the nuts and bolts of what the union does. Immediately we would want
to negotiate for employee contracts with IBM; and to do that a lot of
work would have to be done among union members to establish the content
of such a contract. This would be a hard process and we would probably
want to start out by inspecting contracts from other unions, along side
IBM historical understandings. Once we agree on it, we present it to
IBM, which would want to change things in its favor – we could
expect some back-and-forth on that. Eventually union representatives
and IBM would agree on some version of it, and union members would vote
whether to accept it.
Among the considerations in the contract, I would assume things like the following (Note that all of this and many other ideas would be up for discussion by members): (1) A new path for handling employee grievances is born. It will not be just the management chain and HR anymore. You will have a union rep for support and institutional memory within the union for how your type of grievance was handled in the past. (2) A formal statement of which categories of employees are eligible for union membership; and at which locations. (3) Clear understanding of layoff implications such as severance amounts (and I would expect the union itself to have information about unemployment insurance for each state). (4) Layoffs become temporary rather than permanent, that is, we would ask IBM to call back laid off employees if suitable slots open in the future. (5) Allowing union websites to be accessible from IBM-owned equipment (This seems reasonable to me considering how many nights I have spent in hotels away from home, and the equipment with me belonging to IBM.) (6) Pensions (7) Vacation accrual (8) Seniority rules, especially for employees who were “adopted” from another company. As we gain experience doing this, and as situations change, the contracts will evolve. We should make sure the early versions are short enough in time that we can come back with a smarter one fairly soon .-Rat Wrangler- Comment
1/25/09:
NA,
IMHO you are in trouble. Your mgr has labelled you a troublemaker, no
matter what you might do to rid yourself of the label. Even if you don't
hit the chopping block, you will never get fair reviews. I suggest you
start looking immediately. I too questioned 'relative contribution'.
I wanted to know how many hours other on my team billed. (Utilization
is the only thing that counts in PBC in GBS). "Can't tell you
that" was the response. Well, how am I supposed to measure
myself against coworkers if I don't know what they're doing? I didn't
get labelled, because I was already the newbie and not one of my manglers
favorites, but I started looking for a job and finally left IBM 12/31.
-marbles-
Comment
1/24/09:
To
-Exodus2007-: Thanks for the input.
-NA-
Comment
1/24/09:
To
-NA- To ask peers and team leads their opinion of how you are doing
in general should be fine. In fact we used to do a thing called a 360
where you rated your peers at their request. If you are new to a team
you should have a mentor whom you can ask. Asking them in a way that
challenges the manager would always be frowned on and in todays environment
would be a good excuse to show you the door as it were. Managers have
always lied and said things like your peers say you are difficult to
work with etc when they wanted an excuse that would be very hard for
you to dispute in an open door. They do this when their is no real basis
to lower your appraisal that could not be challenged succesfully. A
marketing person who is exceeding all quotas and measurements but the
manager does not like may be accused of something lame like damaging
morale on the team by stealing leads or by appearing arrogant among
peer etc so they cannot dispute it easily. In general if this is happening
to you and there is no chance your manager is leaving anytime soon better
start looking for a job. It is almost impossible to fight in my experience
and always ends up bad for the employee in the long run. If you are
in a team with a manager who has been in place a long time and his chosen
few, the team leads have also been in place a long time they will cover
each other till the end and you have no chance. If any one else is aware
of how to beat this by all means speak up but in my humble opinion it
is one of the major problems within IBM today. -Exodus2007-
Comment
1/24/09:
To
-Exodus2007-: Does that individual have any way of knowing exactly what
is and is not ok? Since the rule could not be provided in writing and
was structured enough to be generic, it might mean the individual is
insubordinate if the individual discusses in any capacity (even giving
status) their assignments or if the individual ask anyone other than
their manager for advice or thought one how they are doing. To me, none
of this sounds proper, however, it does sound like the individual is
insubordinate no matter what. This doesn't seem very healthy as the
manager said that line management and HR management were all in agreement.
-NA-
Comment
1/24/09:
Hi,
I just submitted about 5 min. ago my job cut comments I would like to
be considered for posting. However, I did not notice and put my real
full name on accident!!!! I am asking you to please omit that and you
this alias above instead along with message, I would appreciate it,
thanks. I don't mind if you know my identity but in case I remain in
IBM and just move to another team I do not want the co. to bring up
that I was tracked and that now I can be terminated for participating
in union. I hope you consider this so that my reputation can be conserved
a bit longer. -Reliable_Resource-
Comment
1/23/09:
Maybe
I don't understand this. Even IF the Alliance were to get enough people
to form a union, IBM still needs to
1) accept the union and 2) accept the TERMS of the union right? I mean, you can't just form this union, and make up rules like "you won't lay off US workers" or "you won't offshore US jobs". I'm finding it hard to believe IBM would even consider union "demands" and just hire scab contractors. If anybody pays attention to the news, you always hear about the turmoil that arises when a union contract is up for renegotiation, too. So even if you had a union, it's not all sunshine and roses for the members. What would happen if there is a union, the contract expires, and IBMers are forced to work WITHOUT a contract while renegotiations happen? This scenarios happens all the time. IBM would rather RA then entire US technical staff and let BRIC do things half-assed than accept union terms. You're motion is honorable and intentions are good, but I personally think it's too late. IBM will never accept a unionized US workforce when they have BRIC at their disposal for US jobs. -educate_me Comment
1/23/09:
In the Midst of IBM making record profits, they continue playing hard
ball with their employees. There are substantiations that there is a
huge layoff in the process, however, IBM is not commenting. Where is
the man with bravery that is running this giant of a company. With 400,000
employees world wide and presently around 86,000 in India, the Out-Sourcing
continues. Just how many employees are left in the USA? Why is this
Resource Action (layoff) such a secret? Is IBM Being accountable for
the Tax Dollars it is receiving from local and federal government? Why
doesn't CNN cover this story to get IBM executives to be real brave
american citizens and Speak up? Maybe Microsoft can show them how to
be accoutable by explaining the press conference they held for their
5000 layed off this week. It has been leaked out by a reliable managerial
source that the layoff is around 14,000 employees. Most of these to
be US Based. It is also estmated that IBM US Based employee count is
decreasing quite rapidly. When will we hear a report from CNN? Other
dirty politics by IBM recently, is they are Forcing system's administrators
to relocate within 50 miles of commuting to one of their Global Delivery
Facilities. Question: Is IBM sleeping with someone at CNN? Regards,
-IBM Employee dreading the axe-
Comment
1/23/09:
With
the record earnings in all of 2008 for IBM, this new business model
IBM\'s rolling out, the mass layoffs happening now. All this is lining
the executives' pockets, I wouldn't be surprised to see a stock split
this year. It would let the rich get richer (i.e the executives in IBM),
but if you've been taking part in the ESPP, or if you're of the select
few that have stock options or RSUs, it could benefit you too. ESPP
shares are yours, regardless of termination cause. Vested RSUs are yours.
Not sure about vested options, but unexercised - I'm guessing you'd
give those up if you left the company for whatever reason.
-rich_get_richer-
Comment
1/23/09:
Why
can't we get the SEC to investigate Sam on insider trading? He sold
540K stock options in August. Then the stock and economy tanked. Coincidence?
Nice timing? Or is this loser CEO just plain lucky? -SEC_Sam_is_a_sham-
Comment
1/23/09:
To
-NA- This is called managing by intimidation. It is the way managers
control employees and keep them cowering in the corner hiding from the
big bad manager. Most team leads are in the position because they are
the best and most vicous brown nosers the world has ever seen. The manager
relies on them to give him enough dirt to keep you appraised low but
forbids you from asking him or her why they said what they said to the
manager. By asking the lead you are calling the manager a liar. Thats
why the lead ran back to the manager and told him you asked . Worst
case they may have to syncronize their lies if you have any chance to
open door. If you are a 3 you have no chance. No one upstream would
risk damaging their reputation by taking your side. An IBM with a union
would of course have a shop steward and union representation to help
you achieve more and be fairly appraised. Kind of like a mentor system
that IBM pretends to have . Expect the person who challenged management
to be the prime target in the next RA. Once a manager has decided to
rule by intimidation he or she cannot ever let someone challenge them.
Its against their nature. -Exodus2007-
Alliance Reply: Exodus2007, please send an email to us, with your contact information (Contact Us). We would like to discuss some things with you. Comment
1/23/09:
To
_shoveitsam- No IBM execs I recognize
http://www.nytco.com/company/board_of_directors/index.html.
Another rumor shot to hell. Maybe the press does not care about IBM
or its employees. Corporate America Lays off workers so execs can profit
is not news. Its normal . Workers Unite and unionize IBM would be news.
-Exodus2007-
Comment
1/23/09:
In
the text books it is called "shock and refreeze" Right now
everyone is shocked. Later will be the refreeze. Less do our own shock
by joining the Union. -Young Lady-
Comment
1/22/09:
When
an individual's PBC rating was challenged and the individual attempted
to discuss with leads what might be assigned verse extra work and what
their leads thought of their contribution to the specific team (room
for improvement and so on), the individual was told by management that
no employee may discuss how well they are doing, relative contribution
to a team, or what an individual's core assignments are with anyone
other than their manager. It was refused to provide this in writing.
The individual was threaten with being escorted out of the building
for insubordination if they did not comply. Any thoughts on this?
-NA-
Comment
1/22/09:
"Send
something to the NY Times about how Sammy writes how wonderfully IBM
is doing and then chops off at least 1.5K employees?" NY
Times will not touch it. I think IBM execs. or retired execs. are on
the Times' board of directors. I think Gerstner might be one. Besides
if IBM sees anything negative in the NY Times they'll pull advertising
from the paper. And in this economy all companies are bending over to
keep revenues coming in. "All the news that's fit to print"
is the NY Times motto. It is as shallow as IBM's Respect for the
Inidividual. -shoveitsam-
Comment
1/21/09:
So..
regarding GTS's "Green" Data Centers. How is it green to take
home-working employees who are distributed across the country/world
and tell them that they must move across the country to a defined central
location and drive to work every day? (or lose their jobs.. right to
work you know?) Maybe the press should hear that one. -BlueGreen
envy-
Comment
1/21/09:
I
sat in a meeting today, but it was not a so called one on one with my
manager to be told I have 30 days. No, that meeting was 2 years ago.
I sat in a meeting at my new company with the group to go over our new
benefits for this year. My prayers go out to all of you getting that
30 day notice today or this week. I've been there done that and know
how it feels and hope to never feel that way again. All I can say is
that life does go on. When one door closes another one opens, and you
too, will find another job, and forget about the crappy job you once
had at Big Blow. God Bless. -Ben Efit-
Comment
1/21/09:
Hey
"Tyler Durden", for someone who wants others to 'get off your
ass and make some noise loud enough for Sam and Randy to hear you' you
don't seem to want to be heard yourself. You're not even an employee
of IBM, vendor or otherwise.... -RG-
Comment
1/20/09:
Looks
like Q4 results were good according to this.
http://biz.yahoo.com/allthingsd/090120/ibm_recession_what_recession_id.html?.v=1 -isittrue- Comment
1/18/09:
"....We've
all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires,
and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning
that fact. And we're very, very pissed off. ..." So why not
start a union?
"...Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place...." So why not get off your ass and make some noise? Loud enough for Sam and Randy to hear you...that means collectively..get it? -Tyler Durden- Comment
1/17/09:
*GDF
MOVE * - Calculate take home monthly pay minus $1500 times 12 divided
by 2100 = New hourly pay @ GDF. Now factor an state tax rate change
For example, 8 ~ 9% state income tax for Iowa. As most of us are established
living in our homes and with families, $1500 + a tax rate change seems
about the minimum amount it would cost to live seperately at the GDF.
Given rent, furniture, utilites etc. Can you work for that calculated
rate and sell / relocate and resume your life? Even given the extreme
stresses you would be under? Stress not only from IBM *BS* but living
away from your family, friends, in a NY, Colorado? even Iowa? I say
NO way!. JUST SAY NO! SImple no one shows up ... GDF is DEAD! Still
thinking about leaving for the GDF? ... hmmm Maybe? What if they re-hire
and pay local rates once you get there? What if they just hire J. Hayseed
and sit him next to you and say train your new replacement? What if
they just lay you off in 3 months and you have a six month lease in
Wasteland, Iowa? Sorry Iowa folks but your state is devoid of technology
jobs and beyond hope. We would have no options there for other employment
and IBM would exploit us even more! AGAIN JUST SAY NO TO THE GDF! So
after all that .. tell me why you would go to the GDF? Really Tell me
obviously I don\'t understand and I am interested in the reasoning...
-JUST SAY NO! 2 GDF-
Comment
1/14/09:
I
read with great interest and would like to hear anyone comment on "Dow
Jones Factiva" article
link -ANON-
Comment
1/13/09:
Having
worked in HR for several years, I still receive notifications from the
Society for Human Resource Management. At one time they were good and
acted as employee advocates--now, of course, they are kissing the backsides
of the big corporations and probably getting something in return! In
any case, I've attached a recent e-mail. I recommend everyone do exactly
opposite to what SHRM states. Write your senators and
tell them to please SUPPORT these bills!
Federal Legislative Action Alert YOUR ASSISTANCE IS NEEDED! Last week, the newly-sworn in U.S. House of Representatives passed the so-called Paycheck Fairness Act by a 256-163 vote and the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act by a 247-171 vote. Now the U.S. Senate may rush to vote on both the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act this week! Despite the good intentions of these bills to address wage discrimination, SHRM has opposed both bills because they would restrict HR professionals’ management of legitimate pay systems and expose employers to unprecedented liability. Thank you to thousands of you who wrote letters to the House of Representatives last week. Please use our prewritten letters below to contact your TWO U.S. senators and share your views on these bills today! Background Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (H.R. 11) – The Ledbetter legislation is a congressional response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s May 2007 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. In that case, the Court held that the 300-day time limit for filing a charge Title VII of the Civil Rights Act starts after the alleged unlawful employment action, and does not re-start a new upon receipt of each successive paycheck. The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would effectively eliminate the uniform statue of limitations on pay discrimination claims. Instead, the time clock for filing such a charge with the EEOC would restart each time an employee receives a paycheck. The bill would also re-start the time clock when a retiree receives an annuity check from an employer, and would thus keep employers liable to a discrimination claim potentially decades after an alleged act of misconduct. The legislation would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act. Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 12) – The Paycheck Fairness Act would amend the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which requires that jobs requiring comparable functions, skills, effort and responsibility in similar working conditions must compensate equally. Some stakeholders contend that the Equal Pay Act is not sufficient to remedy wage discrimination. While wage differentials remains an important workplace issue, debate continues over whether the differential is attributable to discrimination or the result of legitimate pay practices such as education, skill, experience, or tenure. The Paycheck Fairness Act would limit an employer’s ability to justify paying different salaries to workers based in different locations with different costs of living. Second, the bill would lift the caps on compensatory or punitive damages for which employers would be liable, in addition to current liability for back pay. These damage penalties would apply to even unintentional pay disparities. SHRM’s Position SHRM adamantly opposes discrimination based on gender and believes any intentional misconduct against an employee should be promptly addressed and resolved. We also recognize that some court decisions have narrowed the scope of pay discrimination protections. As a result, we believe that it is appropriate and necessary for Congress to re-examine pay discrimination laws to determine if changes may be needed to restore protection under the law. However, SHRM opposes any efforts to eliminate the statute of limitations for filing claims or to prohibit legitimate employer pay practices. SHRM opposes the following provisions of the Paycheck Fairness Act: Ø Promotes class action lawsuits against employers—The Paycheck Fairness Act would require employees to “opt-out” of a gender discrimination class action, rather than the current law requirement that employees must give their written consent to join a class action. By automatically including all employees as part of a class, the bill would dramatically increase the number of plaintiffs in class actions. Ø Exposes employers to unlimited damages—The Paycheck bill would create unlimited punitive damage awards for which employers would be liable, in addition to current liability for back pay. The potential for such penalties would likely compel employers to settle more wage discrimination claims, even in cases where no discrimination occurred. Ø Restricts legitimate pay practices—The Paycheck bill would make it significantly more difficult for an HR professional to use legitimate factors, such as education, training, or experience, as a component of an organization’s pay system. Moreover, the legislation may altogether prohibit an employer’s use of local market rates and prior salary history in setting compensation. SHRM opposes the following provisions of the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: Fundamentally changes statute of limitations—By making the time clock start over upon the issuance of each successive paycheck or retirement benefit, the Ledbetter bill would allow individuals to bring discrimination claims years or even decades after an alleged act of discrimination occurred. Employers would be liable for previous management decisions for which there may be no available witnesses or records. Expands plaintiff field—The Ledbetter bill would allow not just an employee who was discriminated against, but other individuals who were “affected” by an act of pay discrimination to file claims. The legislation may allow family members, including spouses and children, and potentially others to become plaintiffs in suits over an employee’s pay—even after the employee was deceased. -anon- Comment
1/13/09:
Sam
Palmisano is now positioning IBM as the company to lead the economic
recovery of the United States with "intelligent" solutions.
The irony of his comments make me want to wretch. The healthcare and
power grids of the United States don't need to be engineered by a company
like IBM which continues to use antiquated systems and outdated management
philosophy. This is a sales pitch by a master salesman. God forbid that
Congress falls for this load of shit. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123180687062275609.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
-gadfly-
Comment
1/13/09:
To
"run a tool": Do you really want to be with a company
all those years and be satisfied with 50K? Hide in the corner and be
satisfied with that? Most people don't. Thats why there is this push
for a union. A union stands for better pay, benefits and working conditions.
If we all hid in the corner nothing would ever get any better. Who wants
to live like that? -anon-
Comment
1/12/09:
"I'm
still awaiting for the 'afterward to be ok'. I was RA'ed in
late 2006 and still have not landed a job."
I'm sorry, but I find it hard to believe that a displaced IBM'er can't find a new job in over two years unless it was, in part by personal choice. If a person can't land a job, then you create your own using the skills you have or by learning something new. Everyone has to make their own way through life and there are no guarantees except death and taxes. -life_goes_on- Alliance reply: You're right..."Everyone has to make their own way through life..."; however everyone, in this country also has the right to join a union and make their way through life with other people. Collective support of each other is also a tenet of some religious beliefs and faiths. Ever hear the expression "No man is an island"? Comment
1/12/09:
Visit
this link
for the story of the Village of Endicott's Plume, published in the Post-Standard
1/11/2009 -Alliance-
Comment 1/11/09: Repeat after me. The laws are not going to help me. The elected officials are not going to help me. Even the union is not going to help me. Untill me and 51 percent or more of my co workers help themselves by joining the union and voting to be represented. When enough of us have signed up for a vote to be forced to happen, then someone will help us force IBM to be fair, save our jobs, protect our benefits and everything else we wish would happen. WE WILL HELP OURSELVES. United we stand, Divided we fall. One by one at IBM's will. At the time and place of IBM's choosing. One by one we get shown the door. Not even allowed to say goodbye to people we worked with 10,20,30 years or more. Put out like the trash and yet people still do not organize. People still believe they are better off standing alone. Better off pretending to negotiate benefits or payraises alone. You are not and never will be better off alone. "But I'm smarter then TOM and I'm faster then JOE and every chance I get I tell Management so" Now I have my work and Toms work and Joes work to do and I did not get a raise cuz it was too much to do. Tom and Joe got new jobs and seem happy to boot. Who was smarter then who ? Now ain't that a hoot. Life sure was good with Tom, Joe and Me every day. Wish we had unionized to keep it that way. -Exodus2007- Comment 01/11/09: "I'm still awaiting for the 'afterward to be ok'. I was RA'ed in late 2006 and still have not landed a job. Now with the job picture and economy in the dumper, I hope AFTERWARD comes soon. I was also a subscriber to the Alliance@IBM. I still believe that with a union I might have had just a better shot of staying employed in IBM. Without a union I had no shot." The sad thing about working for IBM is that once you are RA'ed it is like you have the plague. No one wants to hire you. I've heard your story from so many IBMers that have been laid off. They cannot get another job. A union would certainly help in this situation. I have NEVER heard of anyone getting a reference from IBM manager after getting laid off. IBM will just verify that you worked for IBM. When I was laid off my slime ball manager would lie to me and give me all sorts of lame excuses why he couldn't recommend me for another job. I finally did land an new job and doing well. But I HATE IBM for the psychological and emotional damage they have done to me and I will take that to my grave. IBM has NO respect for the individual, NONE. They will destroy you and you career when they lay you off. Best of luck. -anonymous- Comment 01/11/09: "Point is, for those who do get touched by this RA, they WILL be ok afterward." I'm still awaiting for the 'afterward to be ok'. I was RA'ed in late 2006 and still have not landed a job. Now with the job picture and economy in the dumper, I hope AFTERWARD comes soon. I was also a subscriber to the Alliance@IBM. I still believe that with a union I might have had just a better shot of staying employed in IBM. Without a union I had no shot. -anonymous- Comment 01/09/09: heh... not sure exactly how you would classify a "troll"... but being a "union buster" would somehow imply that those saying the "grass is greener on the other side" want to WORK for IBM again someday ( absolutely NOT the case, at least for me, I’m glad I chose to leave ). I think a union would be a GREAT idea and I hope people finally get motivated enough to create one. However, for about 16000 people, that opportunity has past and some portion of those people MIGHT be a little scared. Point is, for those who do get touched by this RA, they WILL be ok afterward. Fact is, they will probably be the lucky ones once the dust settles and they’re at their new jobs. BTW, despite what IBM management would have you believe (...and that's a pretty consistent piece of IBM propaganda) when they don’t want you to leave, the grass IS actually "GREENER" (read: healthier, more innovative, happier and more open with better pay...) on the other side(!). -anonymous- Comment 01/09/09: ive been with ibm 27 years. i learned a long time ago, you're better off not making to much money. i was told 15 years ago, by co workers: "get out of manufacturing there is no future", they got out and were promoted several bands over me and now they're all gone..mainly layoffs.. i make my 50k a year running a tool and letting others get promoted to be laid-off and constantly scared about layoffs. i had a 2nd levels, years ago, tell me "run a tool. You get the same benefits as me and later, he was layed off... i went to school and got a degree, but promotions? You can skip me thank you. -anonymous- Comment 01/08/09: enuff of these "the grass is greener outside of IBM go find another job". Some of you are trolls and union busters. This forum is talking about working in IBM and making it better by a union. So all of you, and you know who you are, just go away! You don't add anything constructive to the union movement going on so go away! -anonymous- Comment 01/08/09: To>>>-Beat Up->> YES, you do have complete control. They give you notice that the pay cut will take place in x weeks. If you retire or quit before then, your seperation/retirement calculations use the higher pay rates for calculations. If you think your pay will get cut, GET ANOTHER JOB OUTSIDE OF IBM. When they changed the calculations for retirement a couple years ago, my retirement pay would have been 20 percent less. I left immediately; I was retirement eligible at the time. -mud-balls- Comment 01/07/09: To Discriminated- I feel your pain. I had a my salary cut 15%. You stated you will not accept a 20% salary cut. How do you do that? IBM can and will do what it wants. You have no control (without a union contract) over what IBM pays you. They cut the check and they deposit it your bank account. Its not like you go into the cash register and take what you think you should be paid. I feel your pain and I feel your anger. Do it through the legal system and leave your temper at door stop and use your brain and every legal method you have. As for IBM having a say in you being in an IBM building working for a contractor, my guess is that you left IBM in not so good terms and IBM has a right to keep you and anybody else off their property if they think you are a threat to IBM property. I am not saying you are a threat, but reading what you write, it looks like you have a lot of hostility and I am guessing your last day as an employee at IBM, you were hostile. -Beat Up- Comment 01/07/09: You guys have it wrong. There is no pipeline, no more work. IBM has resourced itself out of the market. -anonymous- Comment 01/06/09: Claim filed against IBM for Retiliation/Discrimination. They blocked me from working with a contractor on the work site because I voiced my opinion in the local paper article stating that I will not accept a 20% salary cut when they fired me in August 2008! Now I get a new job in the worst economic slowdown in history and they prevent me from working with a contractor. This is insane and disgusting on their part. Big company big money, so what, you can't do what ever you want. How come people can voice their opinions here and not get fired? I did! So, I will go thru with this case until YOU give up, too bad IBM you can't do whatever you want. You messed up bigtime here. You can't mess up my life because I spoke up on a message board about freedom of speech typed from my home! Not on your company site, WIPPIE! We got a real problem here IBM, we really do. You can't do anything you want, NO! I'm gonna try and stop ya and no paying people off either. You greedy nasty disgusting corporation that screws all the american workers over and their families along with it. I'm gonna stand up to you and take it all the way, you SLIME! -Discriminated- Comment 01/06/09: For all of you wondering if the grass is greener on the other side, it is! I left Big Blue about a year ago and still have a bunch of friends there who just plain miserable. I joined IBM in 2000, pretty much straight out of school. When I arrived, I had that attitude of "damn the man!" and that I wouldn't conform. Over time, they break you down, give you little morcels of recognition, and you start to sip the koolaid. After a few years, I would say I was proud to be part of the company, and would tell anyone outside why it was such a great place to work. But then the company started stacking the deck against us (no PBC bonus, unacheivable goals, moving critical resources offshore, etc). My colleagues and I would start to voice our concerns in the hopes we would be heard and something would change....nothing changed, it just got worse. And the whole time this is going on, they are telling you "you should be lucky to have a job" and "the grass isn’t greener on the other side". The effect of this was an erosion of confidence in my abilities and skills, and that I wouldn't be able to find employment outside IBM. Well to all those who have wondered whether it would be better outside Big Blue, I would say it is and I couldn’t be happier….no regrets. I hope you all get that same feeling wherever you work! -gladtobegone- Comment 01/05/09: Here is an interesting article: http://www.wral.com/news/technology/story/2552661/ As Sammy takes your job and gives you the axe to cut costs think about the $20.9 Million Dollar Man, Sammy Palmacrapo. Sammy makes more money in 1 year that you will ever see in a lifetime. Here is a quote from the article: "In a regulatory filing Monday, IBM said Palmisano, 56, was paid $1.8 million in salary and $5.8 million in a bonus-like payout under IBM's incentive plan. He also got options and stock equivalents worth $12.3 million when they were issued. Another $988,479 came to Palmisano through various perks, including $406,235 worth of travel on IBM aircraft, $364,162 in dividend equivalents on his restricted stock and $152,460 in contributions to his retirement plan." $406,235 worth of travel in one year on an IBM aircraft? What is wrong with this jerk? Why can't he travel like the rest of us? This is what is wrong with our country. GREED GREED GREED. Greedy jerks like Sammy Palmacrapo. -Anonymous- Comment 01/04/09: What can be done to get a better IBM? People (and corporations) don't change until they are on the edge of the abyss. The best thing for people to do, for there to be a better IBM... is to leave it. Sounds crazy doesn't it? IBM's upper management and major stock holders won't take notice that there is a problem until people it would rather not lose to the competition... leave the company. Until there isn’t enough people to do the work, or poor worker moral finally takes it’s toll… or until there a general global work stoppage (strike), such that IBM starts to lose it’s credibility in the market place and draws the attention of the general main stream media… IBM will not change. While IBM can afford to continue rolling layoffs as a means to oppress it’s work force into a state of mind where folks “should feel lucky” to have an IBM job at all… it can’t afford to lose it’s ENTIRE work force all at once. Alternatively, people at IBM can choose to do nothing at all… and allow circumstances and the market to eventually correct the problem on its’ own. The auto industry and customers' general disdain for american automobile products is a prime example of this. In any event, sadly enough, change won’t come to IBM through subtle actions. -Happily Out...- Comment 01/03/09: Who is the chapter rep for Poughkeepsie? There is the chapter rep for Burlington rep even though we have the VP from Burlington. Likewise for Southbury and Endicott. Where's the chapter rep for Poughkeepsie? The new officers 2009 to 2012 are: Tom Midgley
/ President (Poughkeepsie) New chapter reps: Bill Costine
/ Fishkill Rep Comment 01/01/09: -Union Junky- So what do you suggest we do to get a better IBM to work for? Keep drinking that Armonk flavored Kool-Aid! Your naiveness about unions is killing me. -IBMUnionYES- Comment 12/29/08: IBM will never enter a union contract with the workers. Unions work by threatening the management that their plant will be empty unless they sign. The I.T. industry is not hemmed down by a "Plant" and can move ops to has skilled labor. GM could actually disassemble their U.S. plants and ship them brick by brick to China and put them back together. Then build their cars for 1/3 the cost. A significant portion of each GM vehicle is already made overseas anyway. -Union Junky- Comment 12/27/08: -Ubuntu2u2- this union thing ain't never going to happen, anyway. The executives are out for themselves, ditto, period. You're living in a dream world if you think otherwise. Wish they would fire me but they are too stupid to catch me. -Dave_Endicott- Comment 12/27/08: I worked for IBM Australia for 20 years; a top performer who provided thousands of hours of unpaid overtime. Robert Savage (the then Chairman of IBM Australia) sold me and my coworkers in the Wagngaratta Plant off to a startup company which susequently resulted in the closure of the Plant. IBM refused to allow us back into IBM - they had washed their hands of their loyal employees. IBM had recognised my years of faithful service with an offer of a 30% discount on a new Aptiva. IBM is now a company I would never want to work for. They are incompetent and charge outrageous fees. They treat their employees as expendible resource. I anticipate IBM will eventually go bankrupt because their core values have been decimated. The rot all began with Louis B. Gerstner and it hasn't stopped since. -Ex-IBMer from Wangaratta- Comment 12/27/08: -Dave_Endicott-: So basically your strategy is 'go for yourself and draw attention to your plan and risk losing your job anyway..' ? How clever! Why not spend your time organizing? Why not fight for yourself AND your co-workers; as long as you don't give a crap about IBM or your job? What makes you think you're doing anything to really 'screw' IBM? You're typical of the kind of IBM employees that IBM wants to get rid of. It's people like you that become the battle cry for IBM Executives: "Let's clean house and get these people off our payroll." No wonder this union campaign can't get the traction it needs to grow... With helpers like you, we don't need any union busters.. you're doing it for them. Nice job. -Ubuntu2u2- Comment 12/26/08: Ben Screwed- I cannot argue with anything you said, and said very well. However, I will just add that when I started getting the shaft long ago, I started getting even long ago. Extra vacation days, slacking off and looking well, oh, so very busy, working a couple of hours a day not to mention many other goodies. I'm merely aligning my PBC with that of our executives lead....rip off the company all you can. -Dave_Endicott- Comment 12/26/08: To -UnionOne- Or you have the IBM model of screw the retirees, then its easier to screw the employees. IBM is fast approaching that imbalance but the answer is not to do nothing or to throw the retirees under the bus. IBM's pension plans are in no way as generous as the UAW negotiated ones. Learn the lessons of GM and Beth Steel and others when you organize. Do not kill the cash cow. Just get a fair share of the benefits of working for a strong company united. Maybe settle for the fair to good pay instead of excellant pay in return for lower medical costs for retirees as you will one day be one. All things are negotiable in a union contract. The CWA does not have to get overly greedy like the uaw did if you do not want them to. Remember what you are organizing for. You have to ratify any contract negotiated for you. The UAW had extreme power over the automakers because if they do not build them the automakers have no goods to sell. An IBM union may not be that powerful. That may in and of itself prevent the road to self destruction. At this point in America in IBM , with the economy in recession and people begging for jobs you might as well call your manager MASSA because IBM owns you without a union or an alternative source of employment to use as leverage. And the executives know it. And believe this, they will use it to their Maximum Advantage. -Ben Screwed - Understands. He is exactly correct. -Exodus2007- Comment 12/25/08: Some advice to the posters here: lose the attitude of "I have a divine right to be treated fairly as an employee of IBM". Believe me, you don't. Corporate America is an adversarial relationship between management and the employees. Management will wring out every little financial efficiency possible so that the bottom line looks the best that it can, because that's what they get paid to do. And if that means screwing over employees, then that's what happens. There is no morality in business. There is no compassion. There is only US versus THEM, and that is the reality. There is no way that WE as employees can force THEM as management to change their evil ways. They have the power over employees. The only way to get management to change the way they treat employees is for employees to develop leverage against them, and then use it. You don't develop that kind of leverage by sitting back and whining about the way you're being treated. You have to grow a bigger hammer than management has, and the only way to do that is to ORGANIZE. And why not organize? Management is organized against US, so why not do the same right back to them? You can't change management behavior through shareholder initiatives. or by talking to the press, or by rumor mongering. The only way you can do that, and the only way you can change things for the better, is to have a COMMON VOICE when talking to management. If you have a divine right here in the US, it is the right to organize and force IBM into a collective bargaining agreement. Don't just sit there. Take action. DO IT. Or be content with IBM continuing to treat you like a pile of dog crap. -Ben Screwed- Comment 12/25/08: -Sarah and George-, what happens when you have a union, is you end up like GM with 340,000 union retirees and only 111,000 workers. This results in the American tax payers subsidizing the union worker. In a global free trade economy this is the only outcome, no matter what industry. -UnionOne- Comment 12/24/08: Wow. Its amazing. Even after Dubya saved 2 million union jobs someone still believes that he does not like unions. Why he has even taxed the non union workers to subsidize the auto workers just like a good Democrat. Tax and spend. The shame is obviously IBMers do not like unions even more than Dubya. After all they won't form one to protect themselves and improve their lives. Clinging to the hope that ANY Political party is going to save you is just not realistic. You must put your energies into saving yourselves and not into cutsie stories that are wrong. You can't see the north pole from Alaska. You betcha. Sammy's Elves are working hard to fill his Sleigh, to carry all your jobs away, The reindeer are ready to make their dash, to a foriegn shore with Sammy's cash. Out of reach of the taxman the reindeer all flew, and left USA workers waist deep in brown goo. And I heard him exclaim as he flew out of sight, I'm glad you didn't unionize to try to put up a fight. -Exodus2007- Comment 12/24/08: Sarah: I just wanted to say that ya'll should remember that Santa's elves are not belonging to no union.. not up here in our Alaska either... I can see them from my house, workin' in their little toy factories, there and the hours are purtty long there.. They work hard and they are hard working people. And we need to recognize that they are hard working because that's what they are... they don't need a union either. My husband Todd used to be in a union..he used to work in the steel industry, but he doesn't do that any more, there...Anyways.. Am I glad that Santa's elves don't have a union, there? You betcha! Now I'd like to introduce a great President that doesn't like unions either..president George W. Bush...Mr. president can I call you Georgie?? George W: Sure Sarah.. You can even call me Switchgrass, if ya would like... heh heh heh.. Unions? F*** 'em because I'm the decider and I say to unions, get back to work you monkeys....Corporations need their stuff... heh heh heh.. Sarah: Yes sir Georgie.. They need their stuff there.. so the unions should just shut up and stop causing trouble or we, you and me Georgie, could send them up to the North Pole there, which I can see from my office up there, ya know. We could send ya there and see what it's like to work hard! Yeah, you betcha! -Sarah and George- Comment 12/24/08: The pay range within a band are huge - i'm talking up to $40K between the bottom of the band and the top. And anything in that RANGE is considered 'good pay'. I've seen band 6 US workers (in NYC no less!) making $48K. Put another way, the salary range for a band 4 and band 7 overlap! The whole band/salary range is ridiculous. So, back to the question on Foreign Nationals - they make the salary range in their band level. -darwin's radio- Comment 12/23/08: Yes, IBM ripped me off for years, I mean years. They want us to leave, yet they kept ripping us off. I'm glad I told em off rather than just accept a layoff, I went down fighting for what's right, too bad IBM, fishkill is going under I'm not gonna sit behind a computer and watch my life dimminish -IBM Ripped me off- Comment 12/22/08: "Sam is raping you. Bend over and enjoy it, or band together and take back our company" How can Sam get away with this abuse? I added up the numbers Jerold posted. $71.7 million just for the month of August!!! That is just his stock options. Sam also gets $10 million a year base salary. This is not right. Sam is raping us. This is criminal!!! I'm bending over but certainly not enjoying it!!! -Ben Dover- Alliance Reply: The best way to 'rebalance' the balance sheet is to organize and demand a contract that returns better wages and salaries, higher percentage job security, better benefits, and a voice in the workplace. No other strategy seems to prove better, for working people as a group to be reckoned with. Comment 12/22/08: "I can tell you that they do pay h1-b visa holders the same wages as others" If OTHERS is other H1B visa holders working for other IT companies in the USA then this might be true. But compared to USA non-H1B IBMers? I know an H1Ber I'm friendly with and we agreed to swap pay information when it came up in a discussion we both had. He showed me his paycheck and I showed him mine and he was shocked to see how underpaid he is compared to me. We basically do the same job duties and live in the same area as well as same skills and time in the IT field. -anonymous- Comment 12/22/08: "Does anyone know how much Sam has accumulated in 2008 so far?" Reckon at least $75M or so and the year ain't even over yet. -anonymous- Comment 12/22/08: Sam is raping you. Bend over and enjoy it, or band together and take back our company. -Joe Punchclock- Comment 12/22/08: ibmsux - i can tell you that they do pay h1-b visa holders the same wages as others. and while i don't begrudge anyone a right to make a living for themselves and their family, i do find it unsettling in the current recession that these could be jobs held by americans (we're talking over 100K a year jobs- band 8 and above). although, i'm not sure how many americans (with MBAs) would come work for ibm - it's such a toxic environment. (in ibm speak: high performance environment). happy holidays to all - hopefully we'll be gainfully employeed in 2009! p.s. the public job postings for h1b-visas are actually done on-line now and it is following the law. -darwin's radio- Comment 12/21/08: Has anyone else notice at USA IBM sites that the public postings for jobs IBM wants to fill with H1B visa applicants has all but disappeared? Is IBM complying with USA law still by posting these jobs in the conspicuous areas outside the cafeterias, snak areas, break areas? I also feel IBM is not even close to paying "prevailing wage" for these jobs by hiring through low cost areas and deploying these folks in higher cost metro areas like NE USA. This is illegal if they do. Maybe that is why they are not posting anymore? -IBMsux- Comment 12/20/08: Jerold: My God! Does anyone know how much Sam has accumulated in 2008 so far? This is obscene!!! -Anonymous- Comment 12/20/08: Recent insider transactions for Sam Palmisano: Aug 28, 2008: 250,000 shares Option Exercise at $78.13 per share. Value: $19,532,500 55,900 shares Sale at $124.97 - $125.1 per share. Value: $6,989,000 79,597 shares Sale at $124.77 - $124.96 per share. Value: $9,939,000 114,503 shares Sale at $124.50 - $124.76 per share. Value: $14,271,000 Aug 21, 2008: 100,000 shares Option Exercise at $88.96 per share. Value: $8,896,000 98,876 shares Sale at $121.76 - $122.5 per share. Value: $12,076,000 -Jerold.- Comment 12/18/08: Were you recently reclassified in 2008 from exempt to non-exempt and live in the State of California? Were you recently RA'd and also live in California? If your answer is yes, I would like to hear your story. Please contact me at: caemployees@gmail.com -Jonathan Doely- Comment 12/17/08: One thing I would like to see change when we come out of this economic crisis is for CEO salaries and compensation to come down to a reasonable level. Sam Palmisano making $10 million per year on top of millions of dollars of stock options and bonuses is just excessive greed and not right. If Sam were anything of a man or human being, he would see it. Guys like Madoff runing a ponzi scheme wiping out peoples saving make me sick. It's greedy people like Madoff and Palmisano that are ruining this country. This is where a Union could help. We need a check and balance system. -Anonymous- Comment 12/15/08: So, how is it? Are we pro-union here? Or anti-union? Or pro-this-union and anti-that-one? More relevant, perhaps, is this question: How would we avoid getting into a posture of such work rules? Would not the same political mechanisms at work in the UAW apply to us? -Confused- Alliance reply: The IBM employees, through negotiations for a contract; would develop the language of the contract with the guidance of CWA. Every union contract is different although there are standard items. Comment 12/14/08: Ref: -Exodus2007- Chrysler is not owned by Daimler anymore. It's owned (80%) by Cerberus: http://www.cerberuscapital.com/profiles/chrysler.html Now, if a private capital management company can't make a buck with Chrysler, why should we bail them out? They have bucks - let them use their own money. -Neal Watkins- Comment 12/14/08: I was out fishing and ran into a contractor I used to work with at big blow. We got to talking about the company and we both got canned about 2 years ago. He started laughing and said go look at the alliance site. I was not amazed to see nothing has changed. Big blow is still laying off. What I was amazed about is how when I started working for a good comapny, how the stress level went to nothing, and I no longer worry about losing my job. I am also compensated if I have to work OT and don't have to carry a pager or work holidays anymore, and can sleep through the night like normal people too. It reminds me of how bad IBM sucks. Without a Union, this company is a horrible place to try and make a living. It's so much better everywhere else I can't even begin to explain it. -Happy_Now- Comment 12/13/08: Let me see if I have this right. The American tax payer is supposed to subsidize the union auto worker? How come the Japanese auto manufacturers are looking for a government handout? -UnionJunky- Comment 12/13/08: Its amazing how things can be spun. NO IBMer that got layed off gets 95 percent of their pay for 2 years. By the way the foriegn car plants in the south ARE union with a different contract and minimal legacy costs like a million pensioners. Asking to see a business plan showing how and what you are going to change that will allow you to become profitable is no different then any bank would insist on for a business loan so whats wrong with requireing it before we hand a poorly managed company billions of dollars? The big three and the UAW and all suppliers to the big three need to sit and negotiate who gives what and gets what to save the companies and the jobs that go along with them and bring that plan to congress and say we need x ammount of money to make this work and we should be profitable in x years to pay it back. Not just point fingers at each other and expect me to pay for their failures then blame the Republicans. The UAW has work rules that are ridiculous. The guy sweeping the floor can\'t change a burned out lightbulb in the broom closet. He has to call an electricians helper. I don't know about you but I do not call an electrician to change a light bulb. Thats just one example of some of the ridiculous work rules . I serviced IBM equipment at a GM plant . While testing and adjusting a printer it ran out of paper. I loaded more paper and continued adjusting. The union threatened to shut the plant down because I did the printer operators job. I had to explain in an emergency meeting with the shop steward that the printer was running diagnostics and loading paper was part of the test to see if out of paper sensors were working correctly and that loading the paper in that instance was my job as the printer was broken and unsafe for the operator to run. This just barely averted a walkout . Rules like these are some of the reasons why the big three are losing money. Yes some of them are needed so management does not do workers jobs for free and eliminate someones job but they need a spirit of teamwork in some of this to improve productivity. If the sweeper can change the lightbulb so he can continue to work rather then sit idle for hours waiting for an electricians helper doesn't it make sense to allow that?. In no way should the sweeper attenpt to repair a socket but screw in a light bulb? All parties need to understand if the Golden Goose is on life support no one is going to win. To expect Non union workers the UAW would call scabs to lend money to pay their salaries should be an insult to the UAW. Not something the big three feel they are entitled to. Chrysler of all should be excluded. They were bailed out once and they did not learn their lesson so they should go under as an example to the others. Where was the bailout for AMC? What has changed in America that huge companys with vast overseas holdings think they are entitled to MY tax money and my childrens? Chrysler is owned by Daimler. Go get your money from them. Gm owns Volvo. How much bailout money is Sweeden putting in the pot. As the UAW President rightfully insinuated how dare congess to demand the UAW give up anything. Thats between the Big Three and the UAW. How dare the Big Three show up with their hands out before they negotiated with the UAW. Betcha they can solve all their problems without a dime of our money if they want to. Its just a lot easier to spend someone else's money. If we bail them out, shouldn't we get cars at cost as we then own the companies?? This mess is a Big Three and UAW and suppliers problem, Not my problem and I should not have to pay for it. -Exodus2007- Comment 12/12/08: Just watched the UAW on CNN. It looks like Republican politicians in the South, sold out the USA in favor of the non-union Japanese car companies. -union yes- Comment 12/12/08: I am surprised that there is no discussion here of the auto bailout. The controversy was about the union’s position vs that of some anti-union senators. -Mule Skinner- Comment 12/10/08: Book Excerpt: The Numerati by Stephen Baker By building mathematical models of its own employees, IBM aims to improve productivity and automate management http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_36/b4098032904806.htm -researcher- Comment 12/10/08: Blame the workers? Nope! See: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ibmemployeeissues/message/10492 -Neal Watkins- Comment 12/10/08: Anyone see the movie "Christmas Vacation"? I'm sure most of you have. My fantasy is to have Uncle Eddie go out and bring Sammy to my house with a great big red bow on his head. I'd kick him is the ass for all the grief he has caused us. It really helps me sleep at night thinking about that. LOL -Anonymous- Comment 12/10/08: To -peter_schiff_fan- 2 years ago is even more impressive. The stock market is nothing but herd mentality. Everyone follows the leader. There are no experts as investors simply play follow the leader. A large brokerage house can get a large investor into a stock cheap, tell everyone else its a good buy, drive the price up. Get the big investor out then tell everyone else its going to drop, or just let them lose if they are small investors who cares. This has always been why I refused to invest in stocks. Sure its not legal but prove they did it. Then other investors see the stock climbing, jump on it, drive it up faster just following the herd. The stock market climbed to record highs because of 401K's . The average Joe like most of us never played the market. Too risky for our hard earned money. Then with 401k's and matching funds we got into it. Every payday a HUGE chunk of money was handed to a stock broker who had to buy something with it. I never heard of a 401K NOT buying something with your payroll deduction. This fed the buy buy buy never sell mentality. Millions of new investors without a clue pouring tens of millions of dollars into the market. But its not real money. Sure the money you did not get from your pay is real but what you bought is not. Its not like a bank account where you keep your principal. What your 401k's is worth is its price TODAY if you sell, Not what it may be worth tomorrow or next year etc. Obviously Peter Schiff is the exception. But like Columbus who said the world was round no one listened. I am not sure anyone wanted to listen. President Eisenhower warned in a speech " Beware of the military industrial complex". I suspect that was when Capitalism began turning to Corporatism. -Exodus2007- Comment 12/10/08: To a_new_peter_schiff_fan: You won't see or hear Peter Schiff saying "I told you so"; neither will you see any of those corporatist mongrels admit they were a**holes.. All people like that ever do is say "let's not point fingers or lay blame...we must move forward". But they never move forward. They fall right back into their old cushy position...deny deny deny and take no accountability for what they have done. I saw it, first hand, when I worked for IBM in the 1980's. Upper management would make decisions based on ridiculous assumptions. Whole programs would get close to failure...and then someone would float an idea and they would decide to use the idea and make mfg. work tons of OT to make up for the previous stopped or slowed production. They wouldn't listen to anyone who said their plan was BS to begin with. They just "moved forward". IBM could get away with that because back then no one was competing with them, in the mainframe business, on that level. They set terrible precedents and examples for lower level 'fast track', up and coming young executives. There used to be a funny poster that hung in many of the mfg. engineeing offices back then, it said: 7 Phases of a Project 1. Wild enthusiasm 2. Disillusionment 3. Confusion 4. Panic 5. Search for the guilty 6. Punishment of the innocent 7. Promotion of non-participants I've always used that as a way to ignite my BS detector. Apparently, Peter Schiff saw that poster at some point. -peter_schiff_fan- Comment 12/09/08: Just watched that video from beginning to end and I just wonder what all of the 'big' experts who were trying to make Schiff look like an idiot are thinking now? Oh yes, we should all have invested in the banks, and real estate is going to go way up, and the sub-prime is not really a problem it's just a small problem, etc., etc., etc. I'm glad that I wasn't taking financial advice from any of them! Bet Schiff hates to say 'I told you so!' but how can he not? And were my ears playing tricks on me or did I really hear the one guy say' what a great buy Merrill Lynch is--how strong a company it is', yada, yada, yada... What arrogance, and obviously, proven stupidity or at the very least, 'inaccuracy' in their predictions! Typical Wall Street a*&holes and I hope they are crying when they look at their own portfolios now. -a_new_peter_schiff_fan- Comment 12/09/08: To Exodus2007: Go back and look at the video again. You should notice that the first excerpt is dated August 29 2006... nearly two years before the big crash. Schiff had it right and everyone laughed at him. As far as Fox being "Fair and Balanced"; the point the web site is trying to make, I think, is that the majority opinion---either at Fox or CNBC or any other network that broadcasts financial information---trumps the truth more often than we'd like to admit or believe. Especially when one political ideology is attacked over the other. Corporate media tends to try to hijack the American people's thinking process when it comes to the definition of what our system is...capitalism, that is. Whenever capitalism begins to show its weaknesses...they try to avert our attention. I'm not anti-capitalist, just anti-corporatist. I think that REAL capitalism was hijacked by corporations way back in the post WWII era. They got their legs in the 1970's and labor was pretty much screwed by them come the 1990's. Since the media is largely a corporate entity, then they become the protectors of Corporatism. Of course the US government representatives have been helping out that crowd for years also...both parties. -peter_schiff_fan- Comment 12/09/08: Dear -peter_schiff_fan- WOW. That man is a genius. Why is he not Treasury Secretary? As far as the press not being liberal leftists, Fox News has never been lumped into that Catagory with CBS, NBC and ABC and CNN and MSNBC. As your clip shows, fox is fair and balanced and Peter Schiff is a gutsy financial genius who called it right a year ago and stood up to the " EXPERTS " who had it all wrong . Then again the Market Brokers were so bad you would think SELL was never in their vocabulary. Thanks for sharing that with us and does anyone know if Peter Schiff has a financial advise business? Or does he lease time on his crystal ball? Once again,, WOW -Exodus2007- Comment 12/09/08: Hello, After working at IBM so many years they decided to give me the axe. Now, I get another job on the same site in the same building with a differenrt company and guess what, I got in for one night and worked there and then they denied me access with a contractor. IBM is ridicilious and denied me and my family the right to work. IBM would rather pay my unemployment than allow me back to work with a different company. This is insane! Now, the company said IBM never told why (no reason of my denial in the building), do I have a lawsuit case here? Anyone know the law, do I have a case on this? -Denied- Comment 12/09/08: Check out this video: https://secure.freepress.net/site/Donation2?idb=0&df_id=1620&1620.donation=form1&JServSessionIdr005=p0lmtj5iq5.app43b Ignore the the rest of the page if you wish; but make sure to watch this video all the way through. If you still think that the left or liberals run the media, then you've seriously been punked.. -peter_schiff_fan- Comment 12/08/08: Check this article on IBM. http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081208/BIZ/812080317/-1/NEWS -Rocky- Comment 12/08/08: Sammy is no different than the greedy auto execs of GM, Ford, and Chrysler. He makes the same amount of money and his greed will probably bring down IBM. Sammy is a coward. He should be coming forward and offering to work for 1$ per year until we come out of this crisis. Watch as this slimb ball Sammy fires more hard working IBMers in the months ahead just to save his $10 million salary, bonuses, and stock options. -Sick of Sammy- Comment 12/08/08: I was canned from this company 2 years ago. I've watched the headlines on this site for 9 years, always the same, "cuts happening now". I work for a small company now that does not need a union. They treat us well, but for the big bullies like IBM, who treat their workers like dogs, this will continue forever until a union is in place to make them treat people like people again. I come back to look from time to time but the headline never changes. Without a union, this company is not worth wasting your time working for. Not worth the stress, lost time away from your family, etc. It's better on the outside. -gone_2_years- Comment 12/07/08: "Is Sam healthy? in the Fortune article, he appears to have lost a lot of weight".... Are you serious? He looks like the pillsbury dough boy to me. He could stand to shape up and lose a few more pounds. He looks to me like a fat cat grossly overpaid CEO. LOL! -Sammy's Slave- Comment 12/06/08: Is Sam healthy? in the Fortune article, he appears to have lost a lot of weight http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/01/technology/IBMplan_obrien.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008120206 I hope he's ok! -Is Sam OK?- Comment 12/06/08: Folks, after reading this discussion board I am convinced that US corporations have a major problem on its hands. It is causing our current economic crisis. CEO's like Sammy Palmisano are just interested in greed and financial wealth for themselves. They suck up to Wall street. The employees are the pee ons at the bottom doing the work and Sammy doesn't give a rats ass about you. If cutting your job will boost the stock price Sammy would do it in an instant. It reminds me of the days of slavery in the south. Sammy is the plantation owner and the employees are the black slaves doing the work. Let's support the Alliance and get a Union going and stop this unjustice. It is costing you and me our jobs. -Concerned IBMer- Comment 12/06/08: To the question: What is the main reason IBM'ers in the USA will not sign up in good numbers to get the union? - Answer: IMHO fear and ambivilence mainly. I also think apathy plays a part which includes a naiveness that organizing IBM labor "can't help" their individual situation while employed or even being previously employed in IBM. If we all stand together and work together as an organized force why can't this help our IBM for all of us who work in IBM? IBMers should understand some of us union organizers are still working in IBM and joined the Alliance when it was started right after the 1999 US Congress IBM Pension hearing about the cash balance conversion and the theft of promised retirement benefits. I wouldn't be surprised if some presently employed IBMers and Alliance members or Alliance subscribers were in the primarily Endicott based "Resistor" movement which dates back much further than the Alliance@IBM. We still believe the only way to get IBM back to sound labor practices and business priniciples is to organize. -sby_willie- Comment 12/05/08: To anonynous - We cannot be sure that DOW 10,000 will come back. However, such numbers, in a macro sense, come from growth of the economy, and we all are strongly programmed, motivated, incented, and otherwise pressured to make it grow. This gives me reason to think that it will. -Living on the IRA- Comment 12/05/08: I watched the Senate hearing yesterday, while Senator Corker from Tennessee, verbally twisted UAW President Ron Gettlefinger's arm into agreeing to consider giving up the equity of the payments to the retirees; that the union has already agreed to postpone until 2010. Corker wanted more. So did Shelby. In my opinion, the anti-union part of the Senate wants to see the union busted. Period. Bankrupt the company, bust the union, and reorganize the company with non-union labor. Yet, they don't have a problem with handing over $150B to AIG; who has since laid off thousands of workers. The 'bottom line' is that union workers are under attack more than they have ever been. In this case, their total labor costs are only 10% of what the company spends to stay in business. On top of that, the auto execs could be lurking for mergers with Mexican car companies and spending the bailout billions on the merger and outsourcing labor. US Taxpayer money to outsourced labor, that the taxpayer laborers will never see again, along with their jobs. This all stinks very bad. And all the while, the anti-union American worker sits by and criticizes unions as though they were the chief problem. The problem is with the Chiefs, not the indians..... (apologies to Native Americans). Meanwhile, back at the IBM ranch... the company is making money hand over fist, for their Executives; and firing people that 'cost too much'. How can a company like IBM hate their workers more than the Auto companies do? They're not even unionized yet! I think, that in itself, is a good enough reason to organize IBM workers.... not just here in the USA, but internationally. A global union for IBM makes sense and could become a precedent to leveling the playing field for labor; not racing to the bottom like they are now. We're in freefall folks...Free Fallin' (apologies to Tom Petty) -Ubuntu2u2- Comment 12/04/08: To -Living on the IRA- Have to agree with your optimistic view of the stock market but how about it never really comes back to say DOW 10000? The USA bailout package is trying to treat the patient but not curing the symptoms that caused the malady. The same folks who caused the credit crisis are still running the show. No blame is being admitted but it is clear something went very, very wrong that even with de-regulation should not have occurred if sensible minds were in charge. Just because the stock market showed the best returns over the long term doesn't guarantee that it will do so now. -anonynous- Comment 12/04/08: What is the main reason IBM'ers in the USA will not sign up in good numbers to get the union? -Anonymous- Comment 12/03/08: Sammy Palmacrapo nominated for CEO of the Year??? I thnk I'm gonna puke. :-(((( http://www.247wallst.com/2008/12/ceo-of-the-ye-4.html -Pukin on Sammy- Comment 12/03/08: To "anonymous coward", I have a different take on when the wages became stagnant. I had decent raises up until Bush got elected as president. I think if we base our personal experiences on the political parties, we are all doomed. When you start believing the lies of the politicians on whose fault it is for the failures, you are falling for exaclty the fool they want you to be. Open your eyes and take a good look at the last 40 years of america's economy, you will clearly see it is greed of our leaders, greed of businesses and greed of the Unions that cause a variety of economic issues. It goes back to the theory, you tax the rich and they will figure out a way to tax the poor because they can afford better lawyers. -StarBucksNOW- Comment 12/03/08: Anonymouse (did you really misspell this on purpose?)- without getting into political leanings one way or another I just want to mention your math on the comment "Actually, real wages only started to slow about three years ago, when the democrats took majority of the house." January 20 2007 - November 28 2008 is about 1yr 11 months. or two years if you round up. All I know is after 2001 (when I got a huge raise btw, almost 50% increase between 1999 and 2001) I didn't see any kind of raise until 2007 and this was after 4+ years of 2+ or higher on my PBC's. I am a band 6. Have stayed a band 6 even though I am doing band 8 work... all you band 8's should be worried, I can see that IBM is increasing the work that lower bands can do without promoting them, what this means for you seems very clear. -anonymous coward- Comment 12/02/08: 401K_mercy— If your 401K investments are in common stocks, they are down now but they will come back. The key is to be diversified and keep putting money in. Right now your monthly inputs are buying more shares than they would have a year ago. A fixed monthly investment will buy more low cost shares in a down market and fewer expensive shares in an up market. Hang in there! -Living on the IRA- Comment 12/02/08: Big Blue's big plan http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/01/technology/IBMplan_obrien.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008120206 -CodeMoreLayOffs- Comment 12/02/08: Comments about something in your eye brown nosing, calling names and looking for someone to blame are some of the primary reasons there is no union in IBM. I am sick of the name calling when someone disagrees. Its so childish and stupid in that it drives away someone you may very well need to stand as your Union Brother in these bad times. This company is so diverse it will never agree on every point but untill people agree to disagree with a civil tongue then they will NEVER join together as a union. By the way brown brainer ,( I like that, a polite way to call someone sh*t for brains) NAFTA ( North American Free Trade Agreement ) was started through congress at the end of Bush 1 and signed by Clinton. Sort of like the economic stimulus package congress is holding back so Obama can be a hero and sign it the day he is sworn in and save the economy. If it is a good plan that will help us little guys why won't they submit it NOW to Bush? Why make us suffer another month and a half? Finding someone to blame is not the end of the problem. For far too many Americans, that has become the solution. Its like living in a Dilbert Cartoon or worse yet Doonesbury. -Exodus2007- Comment 12/02/08: To>> -Anonymouse- >> You must have gotten something in your eyes while brown-nosing. Under BUSH we ended up in the current R&D environment (RECESSION & DEPRESSION). -NFW- Comment 12/02/08: Appreciate if we can request ideas via this forum on how to increase Union membership. A suggestion is to have the opportunity for union members to be able to sign into this Website and have Union benefits. One benefit can be to have "Union Member" noted at the beginning of comments. For example, "Union Member Comment 12/02/08:". Another suggestion is to add a section on left hand navigator "Union Members Discounts". Non-members could see the link and selecting it would require them to sign in and also provide a link to information on how join the union. We can solicit merchants to offer Union Members discounts and advertise their company and their discount to Union Members. -Union Member- Alliance Reply: By all means we encourage Alliance@IBM union members to post their ideas via these comments sections; Especially ideas on how to grow membership. Of course our recommendation, for active IBM employees, is to communicate to their co-workers . Organize your co-workers and build membership and committees that can help to educate their co-workers about union contracts and alternatives to the IBM company's treatment of their employees. Alliance@IBM is not able to offer certain kinds of benefits, directly. We do however, promote and offer the Union Plus program to all Alliance@IBM dues paying members. If any Alliance member chooses to post as a 'Union Member', they are welcomed to do so. Keep in mind, that some Alliance@IBM members choose to remain anonymous; which is their right, and we respect that right. We also already have links on our left navigaton column that will take existing Alliance members to a "member login" page. There are "Join Alliance" links throughout our website (see above on this page), for access by non-members wanting to join. Comment 12/01/08: I somehow doubt this Union will ever get off of the ground with IBM. I remember when I started IBM 10 years ago, there were Union members handing out pamphlets in the hallway of IBM's cafeteria. IBM is very strategic in it's busines model. They know enough to not lay off too many people at the same time and just how to put the thumb screws to those who remain by trying to keep up moral. By the time there is enough workers for a Union, it will barely be enough for IBM to even consider staying opened in the USA, because by that time they will be mostly moved over seas. India will have 80,000 IBM employees by the end of the year. Fat chance on getting India to arbitrate, because that word does not even exist in the Indian culture. By 2010 it is very possible to have 80% of the USA employees out-sourced as per IBM's business model that was started in 2002-2003. -IBM7777- Comment 12/01/08: Are you in the same boat for this cruel downturn? if not, how you protected yourself from this brutal "stuck Market Casino games" in 401K, ESPP and portfolio losses ? I am extremely worried about the 401K taking huge beating and I dont have mnay years to make up. My portfolio losses are mounting to 3 years of savings. Buy and Hold ? is killing me. Is there any hope and optimism out there, other then keeping the job? -401K_mercy- Comment 12/01/08: To "IBM Canada Employee", don't resign, if you do, IBM wins. So, you were demoted. Your pay was not cut. Play it by ear, see what happens. Who's to say you cannot be "promoted" again? You resign, they win! -Concerned- Comment 12/01/08: I am due to return to work on Jan 9, 2009 from my Maternity Leave (MLOA). I have been demoted, although my base pay remains the same, however I will be put into a position where I used to TRAIN this team. I will be taking incoming calls & back to the call center status. IBM is pathetic and I plan to resign ASAP. My 11 years with the company seems to have been a complete waste of time, as they are getting rid of the "regs" and moving quickly towards a "contractor/sub" workforce. -IBM Canada Employee- Comment 11/30/08: Freedom in the USA? Who are you brainwashed by? There isn't any freedom here, you might as well move to Somalia where you actually have the rights to own a gun. Freedom is a joke in the USA, this country is going to hell and no one will stop it.. Pack your bags sheep. -Anonymous- Comment 11/30/08: "All of this happened in the last eight years long, long before there was any kind of Democratic party majority in the houses of Congress. Tell these people that real wages only started to slow in the past three years. Your statement is total BS and is very insulting to any thinking citizen. -married_to_ibm_but_a_divorce_is_pending-" Jobs starting leaving the country well before Bush. Free trade, and that's what it is, was institutionalized under Clinton, and Bush Sr. You might as well get used to it cause it's here to stay. -Anonymouse- Comment 12/01/08: See how Ford prospers in Brazil, without the UAW. http://info.detnews.com/video/index.cfm?id=1189 -uawtime- Comment 11/30/08: "Your facts are fiction about when "real wages" started to drop. It was about 7 years ago, 1 year into W's horrible regime; Lost Planes, Lost Twin Towers, Lost Wars, Lost economic growth. -hoe_foraday-" You are wrong. First off, the Clinton administration takes the bulk of the blame for 9/11. The WTC was attacked in 1993, a wake up call, yet it was ignored and the terrorists took 747 flying lessons in the U.S. And as far as the economy under Bush: "In 2006's final period, GDP growth was 3.5%, and it has averaged 3% since the tax cuts. Real wages rose 1.7% in '06, much faster than the 0.3% average of the Clinton years. In just the last 12 months, unemployment plunged from 5.0% to 4.5%, near postwar lows." You can thank the democrats for the current financial meltdown with their refusal to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. And now that Obama is president, you can expect more of the same. -Anonymouse- Comment 11/30/08: To -Vernon XXXXXX. I believe the answer to be simple accounting practices. IBM is not allowed to touch the pension fund directly by law. By charging we retirees twice what the plans should cost or more IBM is able to take back some of our pension money and use it however they want all legal and above board. I will bet any NATIONAL Health coverage will not be available to us as IBM offers us a plan and if we choose to opt out its our own fault. Understanding that IBM gets a group discount you do not how much cheaper does IBM really get these plans for?? I question why the same coverage I had when working suddenly cost 4 times as much when I retired. Other then it would drive my pension check negative and I would basicly have no pension and be billed for the difference it makes no sense as I am still an IBM group member so why would it cost more. Other then IBM is cheating me. Or IBM is paying NONE of the cost for retirees. -Exodus2007- Comment 11/30/08: Alliance Webmaster Comment: The topic concerning the president-elect, the president, and stem cell, etc. discussion has been moved here, from the Job Cuts and Status Comments section. Please discontinue posting those type of comments there. Comment 11/30/08: Retiree. Puerto Rico. A copy of my 2008 letter to IBM. I do not expect a response or anything to be done about this. ........................................... "November 2008 To the manager in charge of obtaining health coverage for IBM retirees. Dear Sir or Madam; I feel IBM has failed in it's promise to help find the best health coverage for IBM retirees. Recently I received the IBM 2009 health plan packet. It is very difficult to compare the IBM/Humana package offer with the plans that are available to all Medicare eligible people in PR due to the lack of detail on the information sheets provided by IBM. As in the past I'm am finding it difficult to find any person knowledgeable of the Humana/IBM plan either at IBM (800-796-9876) or at Humana (Tel. provided by IBM to call for info. 800-824-8242). Reading the limited information provided by IBM (on one face of a page) I do believe that a better, and possible less costly plan, can be obtained directly from Humana for IBM retirees in PR. The monthly cost of two of these plans offered in PR are $23.00 for PFFS or $28.00 for PPO respectively. I am trying to get (and hoping) that Humana will find and send the information on the IBM plan to me. Would it not be better for IBM to use the money it might spend for IBM's Humana package and disburse it to PR retirees for the purpose of purchasing one of the local Humana package? I would not expect money or a check and would prefer a credit letter addressed to Humana for the retiree to use. This way there will be less of a possibility for fraud, "kickbacks", or anything else illegal." -Vernon XXXXXX...............................................- Comment 11/30/08: TO>>-Anonymouse->>> Your facts are fiction about when "real wages" started to drop. It was about 7 years ago, 1 year into W's horrible regime; Lost Planes, Lost Twin Towers, Lost Wars, Lost economic growth. -hoe_foraday- Comment 11/29/08: Anonymouse wrote: "Actually, real wages only started to slow about three years ago, when the democrats took majority of the house. So, given that Obama is a democrat, you can assume that the same thing will continue." This nonsense sounds very much like the recent myth created by the conservative pundits that most union auto workers in Detroit are making an average of $70/hour ( a complete fabrication using bizarre math) or the recent bleating from conservative dinosaurs like George Will who now claim that FDR's "new deal" never actually created jobs fifty years ago and was completely irrelevant to solving the problems of the depression. My husband was one of 100s of thousands (no actually the tally is in millions) of high tech workers at companies like Lucent, AT&T, HP, Sun, Qwest, L3, etc. etc. who lost well paying jobs with benefits and had to replace those positions with contract, part time or hourly jobs at a small fraction of their original earnings. All of this happened in the last eight years long, long before there was any kind of Democratic party majority in the houses of Congress. Tell these people that real wages only started to slow in the past three years. Your statement is total BS and is very insulting to any thinking citizen. -married_to_ibm_but_a_divorce_is_pending- Comment 11/28/08: Will you folks stop the Obama vs. Bush vs. liberal vs. conservative diatribes.. etc. whatever... The USA government still gives us the freedom regardless of who our President is, to better our working conditions and exercise our rights. Unless we UNIONIZE, it don't mean nothing what happens in Washington DC or who is there! -anonymous- Comment 11/28/08: Exoduz2007 and Anonymouse - - Please see my original text again. It said “if the president of the United States says we’re not going to allow stem cell research and enforces it,”. Note the “IF” at the beginning. It does not refer to what was actually done. The intention was to illustrate ways in which government action could help or hinder job creation. If that example is nevertheless considered inadmissible, there are plenty of others. For example, a country that forbids alcoholic beverages probably won’t have a brewing or distilling industry. A country that forbids gambling won’t have casinos. A country that declines to support education is unlikely to produce modern entrepreneurs. -Captain WTF- Comment 11/28/08: "After 8 years of watching a small group of people get very rich, while the rest of us have seen our incomes stagnate and savings evaporate, I'm more than ready to have a new direction. Perhaps you can explain the better approach that you have. -JH-" Actually, real wages only started to slow about three years ago, when the democrats took majority of the house. So, given that Obama is a democrat, you can assume that the same thing will continue. -Anonymouse- Comment 11/27/08: -Anonymous 11/25 - "It is interesting that you think you know more than the president elect and all his financial experts, along with the 66 million who voted for him. Would you like to explain why his plan is wrong, and will reduce the economy?" After 8 years of watching a small group of people get very rich, while the rest of us have seen our incomes stagnate and savings evaporate, I'm more than ready to have a new direction. Perhaps you can explain the better approach that you have. -JH- Comment 11/27/08: The president never said he would not allow stem cell research. He just said the government will not FUND certain aspects of it. That in no way prevented private investors from funding it. Tax breaks for corporations?? Wasn't that one of the changes people wanted? To take away tax breaks from corporations and create an infertile environment? Ease rules and regulations to create jobs? Another thing people voted against. Remember Franks(D) says less regulation is what caused the economic problems and Obama is for more regulation. No import or export fees, thats Nafta which moved jobs to Mexico and Canada. The newly elected regime is against everything you correctly pointed out exept maybe stem cells which will produce some academic jobs at a very high cost because research ain't cheap. I have heard Obama compared to Lincoln and Roosevelt already and he has not even been sworn in. The propoganda machines known as ABC, NBC and CDS are working overtime already. The shame is they are raising expectations so high no one can possibly live up to them. I guess they figure they can make Obama too big to fail. Where have I heard that before. -Exoduz2007- Comment 11/27/08: chili -- Great thought! Now if we can just get Mr Obama to say that to Palmisano. "If you are already worth many millions of dollars, give the employees a break." -Unionista- Comment 11/26/08: The United States does not have the second highest corporate tax rate in the world. The U.S. does have the second highest *statutory* rate. However, I found comparative data for the years 2000 to 2005 here: http://www.cbpp.org/10-27-08tax.htm In the 19 OECD countries the average *effective* corporate tax rate -- what companies actually paid as a percentage of their profits -- was 16.1 percent. In the U.S. it was 13.4 percent. (I agree with the recommendations in that article, by the way, about removing loopholes, broadening the corporate tax base, and lowering the statutory rate.) So I think some people here are focused on the wrong area. Although the corporate tax code needs to be broadened and streamlined, the burden is extremely competitive already. But one big government policy change that would greatly help businesses (and create more jobs) is universal healthcare. Healthcare is an immense and growing burden, particularly on small businesses. If the U.S. had universal healthcare like every other developed country, our businesses could be more competitive. I should point out that the union movement is extremely supportive of universal healthcare. -Anonymous & Concerned- Comment 11/26/08: To "not_an_IBM_prostitute" - I'm on the same sinking ship you are - band 8 forever it seems, constant 2+ or better performer and career going nowhere. No opportunity for promotion and advancement exists. I'm just doing my best to build key skills and play a business critical role until a future wave of offshoring takes me out of the business. My organization insisted that the skills inventory be completed even though they know it's a farce and the information is so general it is useless. Nowhere do they actually give you a reason for completing it. My thinking is they're going to do a superficial analysis to match US workers inventoried skills with foreign counterparts with similar skills as the inventory records, offshore the work and dump the US employees. I can't confirm that, but there is no way I can possibly think as evilly as the arrogant and clueless Ms. Collins-Smee. -Joe@endicottalliance.org- Comment 11/26/08: According to excerpts of the ABC interview released by ABC, Obama said "I think that if you are already worth tens of millions of dollars, and you are having to lay off workers," Obama said, "the least you can do is say, 'I'm willing to make some sacrifice as well, because I recognize that there are people who are a lot less well off, who are going through some pretty tough times.'" whole article is at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27919666 -chili- Comment 11/25/08: And by the way, for those who don't get it, this country has the second highest tax rates on business in the world; only Japan is higher...that and plan on seeing some more news before 12/01 on some more RA's, just got confirmed. Contractors are going to be hit up to amend SA's for renegotiated costs that start immediately. Comsys contractors getting news next and Artech getting it also. -IBM UC'd- Comment 11/25/08: Government can influence the creation or destruction of jobs. For example, if the president of the United States says we’re not going to allow stem cell research and enforces it, but the prime minister of Singapore says they welcome it, then the stem cell related jobs will go to Singapore. Another way is with tax policy. There are many ways to construe this, but suppose country A has a 100% export tax, while country B has a 0% export tax. Other things being equal, the exporting companies will move to country B. There are other ways, like the ease or difficulty of setting up a new company; rule of law; and so on. What all this boils down to is environment. The government can create a fertile or an infertile environment. Businesses will thrive or not, and produce jobs or not, accordingly. -Captain WTF- Comment 11/25/08: I am a former IBMer of 10 years, now on contract. Just got an email stating that my pay will be cut 14%. Oh Joy. I was chatting with my Dad, he retired from IBM at 50 ish in 1990 and gets a big check from them each month. He remembers the good ol' days! -PW- Comment 11/25/08: I contract at IBM and work for Artech. I was recently notified that I will be forced to take a 14% pay cut, because IBM has renegotiated the Purchase Orders with each of its subcontractors. I've heard from CDI employees and they are equally affected by the IBM imposed cuts. -Anonymous- Comment 11/25/08: I keep getting should I say harrassed by my manager to fill out a skills profile and put my resume on the IBM database. Supposedly this is good for my career in IBM. I don't buy it. I refuse to fill it out. Here are my reasons: I have been a band 8 for about 12 years now. I get cxonsistent PBC "2+" appraisals. I feel I have great and wide technical skills in I/T (I'm probably lacking in the butt kissing, brown-nosing, office politics, and "play the game" skills though! LOL) but I never can get close to my band midpoint in pay or even a chance at a promotion even though IBM says that "skills pay". I'm not falling for the IBM method of "pimping" their employees.If my manager and IBM still does not know the skills I possess they never will! I will only fill out a skills profile or send a resume to a prospective employer: all on my own without IBM taking any credit for it. I know what they do with these skills profiles and resumes: when IBM is trying to woo and sign a deal with a prospective customer they show them all the high prized skills like I have to the prospective customer to "sell them" on IBM services. But you know what? If the customer falls for this and signs they don't necessarily get folks with the skills advertised to them. For instance, they might show my skills and resume and then give the new customer a band 6 with less skills. That way the IBM Project exec or DPE can maximize their bonus by deploying cheaper resource rates hoping the work gets done instead of a band 8 like myself that would more than get the job done. IBM might even bill the customer for a band 8 while using a band 6 resource. Improper selling of resources IBM! In this scenario IBM is the pimp or john and I an't no piece of meat to be owned and sold by IBM! -not_an_IBM_prostitute- Comment 11/25/08: -EFK'ed- The salary adjustment is not a fact. Read the fine print on the sheet your manager gave you. "Not a promise of..." There is already a rumor that IBM will not be giving the increases due to the economic down turn. East Fishkill management already knows how the employees will react. Piss and moan and then get right back to work. Burlington employees will react the same. As a force we are gutless and spineless. BOHICA -Not in writing- Comment 11/25/08: Mistressofthei5, Your comments on the new hires being retained for 6 moths is spot on. Every contract I was on did that to the employees we retained. The poor employees didn't have any idea that they were getting screwed either. There has been some exceptions to the rule, but standard practice was to screw them. -exibmer- Comment 11/25/08: You have power: investment power and purchasing power. As you buy stocks for your 401k or IRA, be aware of the outsourcing posture of the company you're supporting. Make sure those companies know your position; and tell your friends, too. When you buy consumer goods, be aware of where they are made. The Christmas season is upon us, and you will be buying gifts. Look at the label to see where it's made. Think about whose economy you are helping/hurting with that little knick-knack you’re putting five bucks into. If you’re buying a new car -- and right now some great deals are out there! – look at the window sticker for “content”. It will say something like “US content 60%, Japan content 30%, Mexican content 10%”. This tells you who you are proposing to support. If we keep our own outsourcing challenges in mind when we buy and invest, we have the power to get management’s heads turned around straight. -Captain WTF- Comment 11/24/08: Why the personal insults no ky? I insulted no one. Living here in the one party state of Maryland gives me a keener insight into what is coming to the rest of the country. Here is what we call a clue. The Democratic controlled Congress for the last two years has attempted NOTHING to stop offshoring. Do not say the Republicans blocked anything or the President would not sign it. Nothing was introduced. Nothing was debated. Nothing was done or attempted. Why should they start now? You elected them with no promises they have to keep. The Democrats would only consider helping keep IBM jobs; who they consider Republican jobs if IBM was Unionized. Then they would be considered Democrat jobs and they may lift a voice to help. MAY. Until demographics showed the IBM union voting reliably Democrat they probably would not care. I doubt things would be any different under McCain as far as offshoring jobs; but he at least understands you cant raise taxes on a corporation because they just raise prices to consumers and cut wages and benefits to their employees to pay them. The executives don't take the hit directly. And they never will. In business you get what you negotiate. IBM is past the no raises and higher benefit costs. They are to the 'cut employee pay' stage, so what would keep them from across the board pay cuts to pay the higher taxes? Nothing. The stronger your negotiating position the more you get. By yourselves you have no strength. Unionize and maybe someone will have to listen. The one thing you cannot wait for is anyone else to come to your rescue and save your job. It is not going to happen under Obama and it would not happen under McCain. There is no knight in shining armor going to save IBM jobs if IBMers wont act to do so. At this point IBMers can't even organize themselves to protect themselves, so why would a polititian believe they could organize any kind of voting block to protect him, if he backed them and angered some of his current supporters. Its all about the votes in politics. So the change you will see within IBM is NONE. My comments were not meant to spur a Political debate. I was just warning you that NOTHING is going to change in Washington. In Maryland I saw a Republican win the Governership on a platform of slot machines to fund education. I then watched the Democratic State Government refuse to pass a slots bill for his entire term. Then when a Democratic Governer was elected and the State was so deep in the hole because they did not pass a slots bill taxes had to be raised and then after that a slots bill was passed. It mattered not to the State Government that they hurt the State and the children of the State; it was all about winning back absolute power. And guess what? They all got reelected! So pardon me if I recognize the same game plan in Washington and am disgusted with it. Enlighten us all NOKY and tell us all EXACTLY what changes are coming? List them 1,2,3,4 etc and list them in DETAIL. Not just "he is going to change Healthcare". Tell us HOW exactly. Not just "he is gonna save SSA". Tell us HOW? Even better, tell us who is going to pay for it? Corporations are not. Thats a fact. They will juggle their books and pay even less because they can. That leaves you and me, and I for one am pretty tapped out. I suspect you can not do so because Neither candidate ever said how. Just vague numbers that changed every speech. Therefore as I said. Change you can count on... NONE. -Exodus2007- Comment 11/24/08: To All Again: All IBM-ers: U.S.A. citizens and permanent residents…..Let’s act as one and be vocal, demanding, clear in message and factual! I was there when communistic regime peacefully collapsed via bloodless revolution in Poland and caused a spiral effect of regained freedom and opportunity in Eastern European block. I remember vividly walking streets in city of Wroclaw, Poland and chanted “Reagan” ”Reagan”…. and “John Paul II” while armed Zomo was chasing me and others….I was escaping from them not to be killed. My personal journey brought me here to U.S.A. I am now as many of you: American Citizen and want this country to succeeds and become again the land of opportunity. Please be vocal: please act on my post from 11/23/08 and follow up from 11/24/08. -BringBackJobsToUSA-- Comment 11/24/08: Well, we were told we are going to lose our 20% inconvenience pay. Then low and behold IBM seen we were under paid without the inconvenience pay and thus a salary remix. That equals the fact we were under paid to the industry standard and many other industries for some time. Taking into account education and skill levels. Time to get our needs taken care of. Please join the union! Don't just sit on the sideline. Stand for something or you will fall for anything! -EFK'ED- Comment 11/24/08: The value of a union. Please see:http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ibmpension/message/66975 and think about the future in IBM -Neal Watkins- Comment 11/24/08: Ref: NO OFFSHORING DATA. IBM is slick about this - they keep the servers on US Server Farms and have the workers Overseas. They also outsource some of the "do work" to some of their Systems Integrator Partners. -no-ky- Comment 11/24/08: If I find that my state has offshored tax-funded work, no matter how indirectly, I'm going to raise a stink! Someone will get unelected next time around. -Captain WTF- Comment 11/24/08: at BTV just been told we cannot have our holiday dinner off site & our fab is at 200 wafer starts per day and we have to start cleaning because IBM is cutting the cleaner's staff, my fab job is going down the drain any other site as bad as BTV -lost in BTV- Comment 11/23/08: To..Exodus2007- >>> Go back to your McCain/Palin refuge and suffer in quiet. You are about to get some real change and probably are not ready for it. -no-ky- Comment 11/23/08: State and Federal contracts i believe are exempt from going overseas....(for now) -update- Alliance reply: Yes there are some state laws prohibiting offshoring by the states themselves. The problem arises when they (the states) outsource to someone like IBM and then IBM offshores the work. Comment 11/22/08: With the State of Georgia contract, I wonder if the details include IBM support in India. Does the State of Georgia contract include that all the support must be in the USA? -Beat Up- Comment 11/21/08: From the State of Georgia article: "The agreement addresses career opportunities for state employees who currently perform data center services, with close to 300 state employees being offered positions at IBM, Dell or Xerox." Let's hope these people end up at Dell or Xerox. If they end up at IBM, they will have a job for about 6 months (or as long as transition is scheduled for) and then they will be RA'd. I bet they have no clue what's in store for them. Hmmm.... one other thing... does the State of Georgia know how much support is going to come from non-English speaking countries? I think they're going to be in for a rude awakening. -Mistressofthei5- Comment 11/21/08: 11AM EST USA: "Welcome to NetBenefits® for IBM Alert Savings & Retirement Your Account information is currently unavailable. Please try again later." I can see my pension balance but no 401k+. Wonder if IBM has not paid up to Fidelity for the service? Or ya think something we need to be concerned with? I can't trust IBM with my retirement. Can you? -401ko'ed- Comment 11/21/08: IBM has won a contract with the State of Georgia http://tinyurl.com/6r843r -just1waiting- Comment 11/18/08: IBM executives and the BOD (Board of Directors) are an increasingly greedy lot. Maybe GREED is not the proper word. Most, if not all, just collect their granted entitled stock option grants and exercise them for obscene PERSONAL profits. How many IBM executives actually pony up some of their own salary and savings to buy IBM stock other than exercising stock options and buy as an INVESTMENT? Not many, if any. So much for the "powers of IBM" actuallly INVESTING in IBM. They are just raping Big Blew for their own personal gain and profits. The IBM shareholders still don't demand more stakeholder OWNERSHIP from these likes. Let's stop this abuse. Let's make them more a "buy and hold and invest for the long haul" shareholder. After all, these types supposed to be the "movers and shakers of the global " IBM. THINK TWICE for the next IBM stockholder proxy on 2009: How have this bunch increased your stakeholding in IBM? Don't let them say that it is the result of the global economic dwonturn that decreased your share. Take a look at how they all took care of themsevles. Took care and continue to take care of themselves extremely well. -sby_willie- Comment 11/18/08: To: Ubuntu2u2- If Chrysler learned anything they would not be in trouble today. They were bailed out once. The big three didn't get it in 1974 when people sat in gas lines and Toyota and Nissan got a good foothold on them. They will not get it now if we bail them out. If we use the monies we would use to pay holdup, er.. Bailout money to GM and use it to cover unemployment and pensions while the big three go through chapter 11 and retool and reorganize to be profitable. That way they will have people available when needed to re-man the retooled factories. Just handing them money is a waste of resources in their current cost structure. If they won't file, let 'em die. Maybe some brash upstart like Tucker will have a chance to sell some cars then. -Exodus2007- Comment 11/18/08: This is a poor excuse of a company. I spent 9 years being lied to after my own company was outsourced. Never did I get a fair review or any of the variable pay promised by the IBM HR liars. All I ever got was over worked, woken up by pagers all hours of the night and worked many holidays of which that time lost with my family can never be replaced. I really hope this company sinks with it's greed and offshoring. What goes around......... -ex_ibmr- Comment 11/17/08: Thanks for the response!! So are you at 30% yet? Dont get me wrong- I am not anti-union, I think it would be great if the IBM workers had a collective voice in dealings with the company. I just wonder if Alliance is wasting its time (say, after all these years, if it were under 10%), or if it is close (say, 30%) and then I would suggest a huge push (people handing out flyers, maybe have a rally or other event)...-newguy- Alliance Reply: It can't be determined, whether there is 30%, prior to establishing a bargaining unit. The answer is: not yet. We're not wasting our time. The employees need to start the push by handing out flyers, having meetings with organizers and basically getting the word out to their co-workers. What you suggest is what we've been suggesting for some time. Organize. We will help. The leadership of the employees union has to come from the inside; from the employees themselves. Alliance acts as catalyst with information. There are laws and time tested organizing techniques that must be applied. IBM will not budge without a fight. No union walks in the front door of any company and declares the company unionized. How many co-workers have you talked to about joining Alliance and forming a union? How many co-workers have come to you asking if you wanted a union contract? Those two actions need to take place, before you worry about bargaining units and percentages. Comment 11/17/08: Ubuntu2u2- GM's arrogance toward their loyal customers and poor quality products are a large part of why GM is in trouble. I've owned GM products for most of my adult life, but I got fed up with fixing GM's junk and they would have to pay me to buy another GM vehicle. Many of GM's suppliers also supply parts to other manufactures, including Toyota, so I don't think the supplier impact would be as severe as people make it sound, plus many of the suppliers are in Mexico. As far as bringing a union into IBM, I think that unionizing now would only accelerate the off shoring of jobs to other countries. The IBM train to hell is running full steam ahead and we have very little leverage to stop it at this point even with union representation. -Anonymous- Comment 11/17/08: -AnonyMouse-: I don't think you understand the huge difference between GM and IBM. Not only that, IBM doesn't have to re-tool to manufacture 'fuel efficient, environmentally friendly' computers or services. If GM goes under and files bankruptcy, the company WILL BE LIQUIDATED. No question. If that happens there will be more than 100,000 jobs lost.. more like a few million....Chrysler and Ford will fall as well. As an added insult to injury, vendors and suppliers to the Auto industry will fall. We will go directly to a depression..do not pass go, do not collect the US economy. The UAW is not to blame for this economy. In recent years; the UAW has made a series of concessions and changes to their contracts, that have helped the Auto Industry get this far. Bankruptcy is NOT the best thing to happen to GM. The best thing would be to roil their top Executives out of their golden parachutes and enormous salaries. They need to take a lesson from a 1980's Lee Iacocca, for starters. Take a $1.00 a year as salary and get to work retooling the industry to fit the demand for alternative energy vehicles. The union should be involved with that strategy, too. It's called 'working together'. -Ubuntu2u2- Comment 11/16/08: I don't understand what you think a union is going to accomplish. The barn door was left open starting around 30 years ago when the WTO, and free trade took root. The only thing a union would do for IBM in this global economy is send it the way of General Motors. Unable to compete and headed toward bankruptcy. Bankruptcy will be the best thing that ever happened to GM, but the worst thing to happen to 100,000 union workers because their jobs will be eliminated. -AnonyMouse- Comment 11/16/08: IBM wouldn't need any employee to sign a non-compete agreement if they treated all their employees fairly with dignity ("RESPECT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL"), paid them fairly (better than the average market pay), maintained employee benefits and even try to improve them, and also give all employees more than just a hope for a lasting career in IBM. Then most, if not all, employees would choose to stay in IBM. The employees would also be more committed to making IBM a much better I/T company since the employee would not have to constantly watch and worry about their position in IBM. The only way to work towards a better IBM where employees would want to stay is to unionize. UNION YES! -sby_willie- Comment 11/16/08: Heard something that IBM want to get some of the USA "rescue" money. They took out a loan (credit) earlier this year for stock buybacks and probably want to secure another loan now but are having probs. getting the credit. Wouldn't surprise me this coming from the thieves, crooks, and sheer greedy bastards that hide in Armonk. -anonymous- Comment 11/14/08: God I hope this guy stuffs it right up Palmisanos ass in court . You can bet your ass he was repeatedly told he was worthless at IBM and was treated like shit like the rest of us. But didn't Apple purchase Power PC chips from IBM? So whats the problem?? Greed? You Betcha. Sam might have to settle for only 71 Million is stock options instead of 72 Million. How dare an EMPLOYEE make good. -Exodus2007- Comment 11/14/08: What I want to know is this: By law, if a certain percentage of employees in a workplace want to unionize, then that's it- they're unionized, right? What is that percentage, and how close is Alliance to meeting that goal? Is it possible.. on the horizon.. or totally hopeless? I've been seeing these Alliance@IBM folks around for years and I wonder how close IBM is to being a union shop. Please don't say "every little bit counts". I know that. I want to know how close it is. -newguy- Alliance reply: Not close enough. That "certain percentage" is a bit more definitive. Minimum cards required by NLRA law, signed and counted prior to a secret ballot is 30% . No union asks for a vote with only 30%. 60% is more like it. Next hurdle is defining a bargaining unit. Once those are defined, then the count card signing begins. Once a majority of those bargaining unit cards are signed, a vote is called. That's the law. It just isn't as simple and straight forward as your example. We have thousands of signed cards; but they are spread across the country. We don't have enough to call for a vote in any particular area or potential bargaining unit. Like I said, not close enough. To get close, you need to help get people to sign up, and check the box that says you want Allinace@IBM CWA as YOUR representative. It's up to you. When it becomes close, you'll hear about it. Your first step is to sign-up and start organizing your co-workers. If you are anti-union; don't bother worrying about it or sending your comments here. You won't make a difference. Comment 11/14/08: There is an ongoing BM stockholder proposal that addresses the outrage over how IBM CEO and executive bonus pay is calculated based on pension fund earnings. It is not specifically a stockholder voice in executive pay but it it is close in that it spells how it is calculated. IBM has contended in the past that how they compensate their executives is considered normal business operations and so far the SEC has agreed that IBM can choose to not consider it for a proxy vote. But now with Sun and also the baby Bells (Bell System Companies) have been successful in proposing this it is due time a similarly worded proposal is submitted for a stockholder vote as well. I reckon we will see a proposal on this as well in 2009 -execpay2much- Comment 11/14/08: Another article on Mark "the Powermaster" Papermaster: http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/11/13/ibm_adkins_papermaster_filing/ This is absolutely hilarious. I know Mark and he is just a good nuts and bolts engineer and mid level manager. The IBM suit is making him sound like an Action Super Hero figure. Mark "the Powermaster" Papermaster. LOL I can't wait to see the outcome of this lawsuit and watch IBM lose with egg all over their face. -Seymor Butts- Comment 11/14/08: "Check out the recent IBM Insider stock option and share selloff orsellout by IBM executives. http://biz.yahoo.com/t/i/ibm.html Wonder what they know that we don't?" MY GOD!!! Looking at those numbers made me sick. The only people to gain from IBM financially are the select few big cats at the top. This is absolutely criminal and I hope our new president does something to stop this. Palmisano, Kelly, Lowrider, and all the other assholes up there who are sticking it to us are walking away will tens of millons of dollars in each stock option transaction. THEY CAN ALL GO TO HELL!! -In Shock- Alliance Reply: Ultimately, president Obama will probably be able to do very little, about IBM's behavior and actions. The best action, is still the action the employees take. That is, to organize and fight back with numbers of employees demanding a contract and demanding the halt to the offshoring, outsourcing, and abuse of America's working people. Don't sit and wait for someone else to do it. Comment 11/14/08: More cost cutting measures by IBM. STG cutting their on-site libraries: " Dear Rochester employees: IBM continues
to examine its costs and is cutting spending in many areas, including
non-customer travel, events and other expenses. As part of that focus,
we have been studying operations of six physical libraries at IBM U.S.
locations (currently paid for by STG), including ours here in Rochester.
While more publications are becoming available on the Web and much research
can be accomplished through on-line sources, IBM currently spends more
than $1.5 million a year to maintain and operate these physical library
facilities. While the Walt Ling Comment 11/13/08: Check out the recent IBM Insider stock option and share selloff orsellout by IBM executives. http://biz.yahoo.com/t/i/ibm.html Wonder what they know that we don't? -sby_willie- Comment 11/13/08: IBM is in violation of the RICO Act, Chapter 96 of Title 18 of the United States Code. Racketeering. Any enterprise that has committed 2 out of 35 crimes within a 10 year period can be charged with racketeering. Securities Fraud http://www.techlawjournal.com/home/newsbriefs/2007/06a.asp IBM continues to misreport losses, attributing losses caused by foreign worker's ineptitude to employees of the United States of America to further justify the offshoring of American jobs and the influx of foreign workers with H1B visas. Aiding aliens illegally entering the country for financial gain via the use of a company vehicle, the IBM intranet. Thus allowing illegal aliens access to private and sensitive data, and transportation of more than company owned items illegitimately. Our personal information such as social security numbers now sits in Manila , Philippines . Money laundering. Offshore accounts and offshore tax havens. Tax evasion. Extortion and blackmail. Forcing employees, threatened with immediate job loss, to train the illegal aliens to access systems that contain data that is private in nature, sometimes belonging the government of the United States of America or to a state government and its private citizens. Thereby encroaching on our civil liberties in a pattern lasting a substantial period of time ( 1 year or more). This is cruel treatment and tantamount to slavery, extortion and blackmail. Trafficking of computer program documentation created by citizens of the United States of America and intended for use by citizens of the United States of America . Theft of the intellectual capital of some citizens of the United States of America , delegitimizing and denigrating the skills of the workers of the United States of America , deeming their education's, hard earned and expensive diplomas from the educational institutions of the United States of America worthless . The perpetrators of these crimes against the people of the United States of America should be prosecuted to the full extent of the federal laws of the United States of America . The United States Attorney should seek a restraining order and seize the defendant's assets. Any person damaged by the racketeers can sue and collect treble damages. -just1waiting- Comment 11/13/08: http://tinyurl.com/5e9po6 IBM shareholders outraged by excessive CEO pay and benefits should do this as well. -Gone.from.IBM- Comment 11/13/08: "Seymor - I am suprised by your position on this. You believe Mark is a good man, obviously IBM thinks so as well. In this day and age of total disrespect for intellectual property, IBM in this situation appears to be putting a VERY high value on Mark. It is reported they even tried to offer him additional compensation to stay. If you believe he is an intelligent man then you must believe he totally understood what he was signing, and the consequences.Others have signed this and waited out the year until they worked for a competitor, he apparently didn't think he needed to. On a message board where people are constantly criticizing IBM for not valuing there employees, could there be any better demonstration of valuing an employee than to fight to keep them from going elsewhere???" IBM tried to keep Mark but he obviously made up his mind that he wanted to leave IBM to pursue new career opportunities. If Mark decided to leave for a competitor, I could understand signing the non-compete agreement. But as I said earlier, Apple makes iPods and personal computers. This is a market space that IBM does not compete in. IBM is the "bad guy" in this case. If IBM can't keep Mark they will make life as miserable as they can for him with a lawsuit. Sitting on the bench for a year and not working for Apple is ridiculous and will not hurt IBM in the slightest. -Seymor Butts- Comment 11/12/08: I see that the "Blue Harmony" folks in SBY have to pay for the their Kickoff meeting buffet. $23-$28 for 11/18/08. Can't the head of this "Blue Harmony" project or Sammy "I just cashed in $74,000,000 in stock options" Palmicrapo spare a few scheckles and treat these folks to a decent meal for this "important" project "event"? Oh, gee, I forgot the IBM Value system is based on their employees spending more and more of their money and sacrificing more and more so IBM can supposedly save money to increase "investor value".. What a &^%$ing joke! I ain't paying for the buffet or going since I don't think the Kool-Aid served with the buffet will be sweet at all! But, yes. some on this Big Blew harmony "let's make it finally work" project will pay for it and think the drink is better and sweeter than that concocted by Jim Jones. -bigblewharmonysux- Alliance Reply: Why not call for a boycott of the meeting? Not just because of the meal price; but for all the reasons IBMers have become disgusted with manegment's 'important events', like layoffs, offshoring, and pay cuts. Spread the word that it's being boycotted. See what happens. It's just a suggestion. Comment 11/11/08: I also dislike the non-compete agreement. One the one hand we are told that we are at-will employees who can be discharged for any reason and no reason at the convenience of the employer. On the other hand we are also told that we can't seek employment in the very industry where we have been developing skills. It's unfair. -Real American- Comment 11/11/08: Seymor - I am suprised by your position on this. You believe Mark is a good man, obviously IBM thinks so as well. In this day and age of total disrespect for intellectual property, IBM in this situation appears to be putting a VERY high value on Mark. It is reported they even tried to offer him additional compensation to stay. If you believe he is an intelligent man then you must believe he totally understood what he was signing, and the consequences.Others have signed this and waited out the year until they worked for a competitor, he apparently didn't think he needed to. On a message board where people are constantly criticizing IBM for not valuing there employees, could there be any better demonstration of valuing an employee than to fight to keep them from going elsewhere??? -Anonymous- Alliance Reply: This discussion was moved from Job Cuts Status and Comments. This thread was steering off course from job cuts. Comment 11/11/08: Anonymous: Seymor - what part about Mark voluntarily signing a non-compete agreement do you not understand? Why do you see IBM as the "bad guy" in this situation? Personally, I despise the practice of employers, not just IBM in particular, requiring prospective employees to sign "non-compete" agreements. When it's a common practice, what choice does a person have but to sign and accept what is essentially the power to stall your career even after you're no longer employed by them?? -irRational- Comment 11/10/08: "Seymor - what part about Mark voluntarily signing a non-compete agreement do you not understand? Why do you see IBM as the "bad guy" in this situation? Do you own Apple stock or something?" IBM is the "bad guy" in this situation. IBM doesn't and can't compete with Apple. Since when does IBM make iPods and personal computers? The last I heard IBM couldn't compete in the personal computer market and sold it. You are obviously a brainwashed IBMer. A little competition might help this big fat blue pig called IBM. I wouldn't mind a little Apple stock. When IBM gets a visionary leader like Steve Jobs and toss out the self-serving greedy bastard Sam Palmisano I might consider buying IBM stock again. -Seymor Butts- Comment 11/10/08: Mark Papermaster worked for IBM and his wife (maybe ex-wife) Kathy Papermaster is still at IBM. I'm glad he was forced to stop working at Apple. He signed the agreement and thats too bad.. I just wonder how IBM found out about him leaving to goto Apple, if I quit, like I'd tell them where I was going to work. -Anonymous- Comment 11/09/08: Seymor - what part about Mark voluntarily signing a non-compete agreement do you not understand? Why do you see IBM as the "bad guy" in this situation? Do you own Apple stock or something? -Anonymous- Comment 11/09/08: Here is the stuff, the cats under Sammy don't want you to know about. Good IBM managers are leaving for better jobs. They see IBM as a sinking ship, like the Titanic and want to jump. I know 'Mark' in this article and he is a good man. IBM is now trying to spoil his dream job. Read below: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2334163,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03069TX1K0001121 -Seymor Butts- Comment 11/07/08: IBM on notice in Texas contract: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/11/07/1107ibm.html -Neal Watkins- |
