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September 1, 2003 It's Labor Day, 2003. Time to remember the workers that actually create the wealth of this country. However - do you consider yourself a "worker"? What do you call yourself at IBM? An employee? A professional? A resource? A "headcount"? When I joined IBM in 1981, I was a college graduate and considered myself a white collar professional - in the same league as an engineer, lawyer, manager, professor, and other educated professionals. I felt a great deal of pride and dignity being in this group. "Workers", I thought at the time, were blue collar - factory workers, janitors, farm workers. They had dignity, too, but it was different. My parents were in unions - but they had not gone to college. I always thought of myself as part of the IBM company, responsible for its success. Never did I think that professionals would need protections from their companies the way blue collar workers did. Unions were good for them, but I didn't need one. Once I finally realized, in 1999, that IBM management no longer respected its employees and saw them as expenses to be managed for maximum return - just like machines and plants - I knew we employees had to fight back, to organize to protect our rights and benefits. Since U.S. laws that would protect workers are so weak, I knew that a union was our only viable chance. But I had to overcome the idea of being "just a worker" - I had to admit that being a "professional" didn't mean anything anymore. As someone who once seriously considered getting an MBA, and who was in IBM management for a time - this has been a definite shift in how I see myself. And it's a shift that I think is critical for all non-managers at IBM to make. Not only do we see IBM management fighting against fair pensions, and churning employees constantly and bringing job insecurity to new heights, but we recently just learned they are planning to send thousands of our jobs to other countries, knowing full well that former IBM workers in the U.S. will have little chance of finding another, comparable job, in the continuing weak economy. IBM executives have employment contracts, with separate generous retirement plans, millions of dollars in stock, and other advantages that assure their wealth. Do you still want to believe the delusion that you are somehow different from a "worker"? Doesn't management call you a "headcount"? Well, eventually I made the shift. I got over it. We are workers. We are just as manipulated as the railroad workers of the 19th century, and others. We are an expense to be driven down, even to the point of losing our jobs. So fellow IBM employees/workers/headcount - Get over it! You aren't going to be rich. You are being manipulated and driven down. You are a worker. And as workers together, we can have some incredible power. So make the shift - you are not alone, you are with us, your fellow workers. Happy Labor Day!
Previous Letters from the President
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