KTTC Rochester, Austin, Mason City News, Weather and SportsNew IBM "resource action" underway across the U.S.

New IBM "resource action" underway across the U.S.

ROCHESTER (KTTC-DT) -- Computer giant IBM is engaged in what appears to be a massive restructuring that could mean as many as 5,000 jobs shifted to India.  It is unclear how many--if any--of the job cuts will come at IBM's Rochester complex, although a unit in Minneapolis may be affected.

This new offshoring of jobs seems to be focused within IBM's Global Business Services and Global Technology Services divisions.  GBS might be described in a simplified way as a consulting arm of the company.  Among the GBS units hit hard Thursday is Systems Engineering, Architecture, and Test (SEA&T).  Another is Application Services within GBS, with 1,674 positions said to be eliminated.

Layoffs at U.S. sites have been reported so far at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, in New Jersey, Atlanta, Tulsa, Boulder, Charlotte, Burlington, St. Louis, West Palm Beach, and Hartford.  There's a report that some were laid off at an IBM site in Edmonton, Alberta.

Many are reporting that they have been given a month more on the job to look for another position either within or outside of IBM.  Many are being offered up to 26 weeks severance, at the rate of one week for each six months of service, plus a year's worth of health insurance.

One woman who asked us not to use her name called in tears to report that her daughter had just been laid off.  She is among those who is angry about the shifting of jobs to India.  Her daughter is in her 50s, as were many of those affected in the last wave of layoffs at IBM Rochester.

The pro-union Alliance@IBM organization is posting what it says is a copy of a letter regarding the outsourcing of jobs in Connecticut to India; it is said to be from a senior IBM manager regarding the servicing of the Hartford Insurance account.  "Starting next week several Hartford delivery teams will be working directly with fellow IBM team members from India to begin the second phase of our Global delivery solution planned for the Hartford account. The teams will be engaged in a multi-week effort to facilitate knowledge transfer to prepare for migration of specific work activities to global delivery counterparts later in 2009. Your continued support and leadership is critical to ensure our overall success and to ensure we continue to deliver high quality cost effective solutions that IBM committed to the Hartford. Please ensure you and your teams actively support this effort."

Lee Conrad with the pro-union group is saying that he's hearing that IBM will lay off some 5,000 employees all across the U.S.  Some IBMers are calling this "Black Thursday."

IBM has been embarking on a further globalization of its work force for quite some time.  Many older workers terminated in Rochester had been offered the chance to move to China, India or Brazil as part of the company's "Project Match" program, as KTTC reported in early March.

Many older IBMers we spoke with the past two months were furious about being terminated close to retirement, and angry that "their" jobs were apparently popping up on the other side of the globe.  On Thursday, one of those joining the group has angrily challenged reporters to look beyond the company's standing explanation that layoffs are part of its business plan. 

"This is not a story about another 5,000 layoffs in the sea of the millions already laid off," writes a blogger going by the identity -20 years-.  "That's exactly how IBM wants you to report it. In fact, the recession and other layoffs are great cover for IBM. The real story is this is not a typical recessionary laryoff, pruning poor performers or re-balancing skills for client needs. This is a story about a deliberate and systematic business strategy to replace 15-20K American workers each year with lower-cost BRIC (Brazil, India, China) workers.  So far this year, it is approaching 10K (5K in Jan; 5K today) with rumors of more to come in June and in the Fall. This is not a story about moving unskilled work to another country. The layoffs have included highly-skilled and experienced professionals - scientists with PhDs, MBAs, seasoned software developers, marketing experts, consultants, project managers and manufacturing workers. This is a story about throwing near-retirement workers into the layoff pool - and using some of the savings (not sent overseas) to hire lower cost & unsuspecting new college grads."

So far, we have not heard directly that any employees at IBM Rochester have been affected by this latest IBM cutback.  With the cuts said to be in Big Blue's Global Business Services Division, some who are familiar with IBM's structure think that some employees working out of a Minneapolis branch may be laid off.  However, at midday on Thursday there were still job openings listed with the GBS unit in Minneapolis.