InformationWeek > IBM And Offshoring > IBM Workers In Europe May Strike Over Offshoring > April 25, 2005 — Aha! Here is the reason for the big IBM layoff as cited below. This story is from a week earlier.
IBM workers in Europe may strike this week over what they say is the company’s ongoing movement of jobs to low-cost countries such as India and China, according to union sources. Meanwhile, a U.S. employee group is asking IBM stock owners to vote on an anti-offshoring resolution at the company’s annual meeting Tuesday.
Trade unions representing IBM workers in Germany have called for protests at IBM locations countrywide on Tuesday. Employee groups at IBM France have voted to strike at facilities in Toulouse and Marseille on Wednesday. IBM workers are unionized in parts of Europe but not in the United States, though some U.S. workers belong to a loosely knit employee association.
IBM union leaders in Europe blame recent layoffs and facility closings on the company’s shifting of jobs to low-cost countries in Asia and Eastern Europe. In an E-mail distributed over the weekend to IBM’s European workers, union officials outlined their position succinctly: “Our main slogans are no offshoring, no layoffs!” IBM employs about 100,000 workers in Europe. The company recently said it might close German offices in Hannover and Schweinfurt.
What is ths issue here? You can’t put a tariff on software code like with manufacturing. The other countries have boosted their property rights and developed a class of skilled workers that make investment their attractive. Why shouldn’t companies go there, if they feel it’s their best interest? I have yet to here a practical counteraction to prevent outsourcing, which itself occurred because visas were restricted, preventing workers from coming here.
What we are seeing is IBM management that is still managing quarter-to-quarter… to make its numbers for the street. The “Resource Actions” are excellent examples of decreased client service to look good on the street.
This is the short sighted thinking that got the auto industry where it is. The top brass at IBM is very intelligent and calculating. But, what good is a stock price this quarter if you’ve mortgaged your future to get it?