Thread regarding IBM layoffs

Author has cancelled this series. Lee Conrad at WatchingIBM has better material on his webpage (the attachment to facebook).

Voice of IBMers (part 1): IBM’s ‘new way of work’ means Mass Layoffs, Discrimination, Loco Colo-Concentration Camps, and Disrespect for Individuals.

What would Thomas Watson do? I do not THINK he would go loco and make his people go colo as part of a Project Chrome Final Transformation scheme to shed his U.S. workforce.

Emboldened by shifting political winds, CEO Virginia Rometty turbo charged her transformation. My estimate is that between 15,000 and 30,000 U.S. IBMers lost their jobs in the last 18 months, and between 45,000 and 80,000 worldwide (including U.S. IBMers and contractors who are for all intensive purposes TrueBlue IBMers in every way except benefits).

Project Chrome is the codename for a top secret plan to shed more than 26 percent of IBM’s employees. Because technologist Bob Cringely reported its existence in this Forbes article at the beginning of 2015, IBM had to scale back its plans and instead pursue a prolonged forced march of recurring quarterly layoffs over the next 11 consecutive quarters of declining revenue (Note: IBM recorded 22 consecutive quarterly revenue declines).

This is background briefing on Company’s ‘new way of work’ epitomized by a massive recall of far more than the Company-reported 5,000 U.S. IBMers as part of a North America ‘colocation’ scheme geared towards getting IBMers to quit en masse rather than subject their families to forcible relocation to selected ‘hub’ locations designated by IBM Corporate for each business unit.

IBMers in Europe and South America are also impacted in functions ranging from marketers to IT support and deliver service personnel who managed IBM’s outsourcing clients. Indeed, the ‘colocation’ scheme is part of a Final Solution for conducting a scalable, global, termination of veteran IBMers over the age of 40.

Colocation as implemented at IBM meets the original meaning of concentration camp: A place in which large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities.

TrueBlue view on the value of seasoned IBMers: Youth has no exclusive claim to imagine, intellect, energy or enthusiasm. Wherever I travel in IBM, I see long-service people very much involved in critical projects. They have earned our respect, not for their tenure so much as for their continuing day-to-day contributions to the business and its future. I believe that we enjoy the best of both worlds. We are a young company, but we also know the value of, and profit from, the special wisdom of experience. — Former IBM CEO Frank Cary (1974).

You will find compelling quotes from IBMers at the bottom of this article. These are truly voices of IBMers.

This background briefing was initially drafted in June 2017 to accompany a public six-point “Open Letter” (petition) to CEO Virginia Rometty. This document was made available to interested parties on a confidential basis. Subsequently, additional information has become available demonstrating that the IBM Corporation (the Company) has conducted far more extensive mass layoffs around the world as part of a systematic effort to target IBMers over the age of 40. Refer to an extensive investigation published by ProPublica.

Call to Action

Do you believe you were discriminated against based on your age? Yes, IBM fired younger workers, but you still have a claim because the law says that we only have to prove that the Company’s policies disparately impacted workers over the age of 40 in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). They did. No doubt — I witnessed utter destruction of IBM’s footprint in Southern California as well as extraordinarily short-sighted, stupid layoffs of veteran IBMers in the hugely profitable mainframe platform business unit. ProPublica’s investigation documented systematic age-discrimination dating as far back as former CEO Sam Palmisano. For those hundreds of IBM managers and executives who are privy to Virginia’s latest schemes, it’s time for you to speak up. Do your duty. Pass information to the ProPublica reporter and class action lawyers serving IBMers.

File your complaint today with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)! My bogus Separation Agreement is fairly standard; therefore, I exercised my right to file a charge with the EEOC. It takes less than 30 minutes on the EEOC portal.

I have applied to join the class action suit. Ask for information about the age discrimination class-action suit filed by LICHTEN & LISS-RIORDAN — the law firm that beat Uber — by sending an email to ibmlawsuit@llrlaw.com, Subject line: IBM Class Action Request for Information.

New Article: Voice of IBMers (part 2): Rage against the Machine — No Trust for IBM Watson Marketing Hype, Mr. Death Panel, & Cancerous Corporate Governance

https://medium.com/@B_C_Gobin/rage-against-the-machine-no-trust-for-ibm-watson-marketing-hype-morally-conflicted-board-of-dir-e2d2b0b9a1d

Year old article.

Extremely distasteful and disrespectful to compare forced relocation to the Holocaust. I do not feel sorry that you were offered a relocation package and turned it down.

Omg, this is gold