IBM Abandons US Workforce

News from
Alliance@IBM CWA Local 1701,
Washtech CWA Local 37083
TechsUnite
Communications Workers of America, AFL/CIO
The unions for the information age.

As the Senate considers jobs bill H.R. 4213
IBM Abandons US Workforce

As unemployment increases, IBM continues to abandon the US workforce in favor of offshore workers.
Not only is IBM shifting work from US locations to low wage countries it is also importing foreign workers to replace US workers.

IBM employees and workers at companies IBM has outsourcing agreements with are losing their jobs to low wage imported workers.

Recent examples should raise the concern of all US workers:
· Advanced Auto Parts call center in Roanoke, Virginia. Outsourced to IBM. US workers terminated and call center offshored to India.
· New York City Department of Finance consulting contract on Servers. Outsourced to IBM. IBM brings in IBM India employees.
· UPS IT department. Outsourced to IBM. IBM India workers on site in New Jersey to take over work. Work to be shifted to India.
· The Hartford and Disney accounts have terminated US workers and off shored to India.

How many other workers have lost or will lose their jobs? Only IBM knows.
Recently IBM made the decision not to report employee headcount by country but worldwide.
This will further hinder fact finding on the decline of the IBM US employee population which has shrunk by 30,000 employees the past few years, (14,000 in the past year and a half) while India, China and Latin America employee population increases as work is shifted from the USA.

It is clear IBM does not value or respect the skill and expertise of US workers.
Furthermore the loss of skilled tech workers jobs to offshore labor is unacceptable and leads to a loss of our competitive advantage and is a danger to our economic recovery and national security.

The Alliance@IBM CWA Local 1701 is calling on IBM and other corporations to do the following:
Stop replacing American workers with foreign workers in the US.
· Re-hire US workers.
· Stop offshoring US jobs.
· All US contracts to be staffed by US workers.

We call on our political leaders to close tax loopholes and deny IBM public money, tax breaks and incentives until they cease the offshore of jobs and the use of foreign staff on US accounts.
We further call on our political leaders to publically and visibly condemn IBM's abandonment of the US workforce. The cost of inaction will result in the further erosion of US jobs, wages and the American standard of living. Now is the time to stand up for working families. We will be watching.
To our brothers and sisters from other countries rest assured. We do not consider you the enemy.
The "captains of industry" take advantage of us all.