| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
26 Dec 2003 11:02:41 AM |
| Object: |
IBM's Christmas gift to its employees. |
From The New York Times, 12/26/03:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/26/opinion/26HERB.html
Bracing for the Blow
By BOB HERBERT
I.B.M. has sent a holiday chill through its American employees with
its plans to ship thousands of high-paying white-collar jobs overseas
to lower-paid foreign workers.
"People are upset and angry," said Arnie Marchetti, a 37-year-old
computer technician at I.B.M.'s Southbury, Conn., office whose wife
gave birth to their first child in August.
The company has not made any announcements, and the employees do not
know who will be affected, or when.
The uncertainty about whose jobs may be sent to India or China, the
two main countries in the current plans, has raised workers' anxiety
in some cases to an excruciating level.
"I understand that this is a lightning rod issue in the industry," an
I.B.M. spokesman told me this week.
"It's a lightning rod issue to people in our company, I suppose. But I
don't think anybody expects us to issue blanket statements to the work
force about projections."
Referring to employees who may be affected by the plans, he said, "We
deal with them as they need to know."
"Offshoring" and "outsourcing" are two of the favored euphemisms for
shipping work overseas.
I.B.M. prefers the term "global sourcing."
Whatever you call it, the expansion of this practice from
manufacturing to the higher-paying technical and white-collar levels
is the latest big threat to employment in the U.S.
Years ago, when concern was being expressed about the shipment of
factory jobs to places with slave wages, hideous working conditions
and even prison labor, proponents said there was nothing to worry
about.
Exporting labor-intensive jobs would make U.S. companies more
competitive, leading to increased growth and employment, and higher
living standards.
They advised U.S. workers to adjust, to become better educated and
skillful enough to thrive in a new world of employment, where
technology and the ability to process information were crucial
components.
Well, the workers whose jobs are now threatened at I.B.M. and similar
companies across the U.S. are well educated and absolute whizzes at
processing information.
But they are nevertheless in danger of following the well-trodden path
of their factory brethren to lower-wage work, or the unemployment
line.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that I.B.M. had told its
managers to plan on moving as many as 4,730 jobs from the U.S.
The I.B.M. spokesman told me he was sure that figure was too high, but
added that no one had complained to The Journal about the number.
He said he didn't know how many American jobs would be lost.
I.B.M. officials are skittish to the point of paranoia on this matter,
which has powerful social and political implications.
Pulling the plug on factory workers is one thing.
A frontal assault on the livelihood of solidly middle-class Americans
-- some of whom may be required to train the foreign workers who will
replace them -- is something else.
James Sciales was the first of the company spokesmen to respond to my
inquiries this week.
He was reluctant to even tell me his name and nervously refused to
answer any questions.
Another spokesman was willing to talk but asked that I not refer to
him by name.
In a recorded conference call reported by The Times last summer, a
pair of I.B.M. officials told colleagues around the world that the
company needed to accelerate its efforts to move white-collar jobs
overseas.
They acknowledged the danger of a political backlash, but said it was
essential to step up the practice.
"Our competitors are doing it and we have to do it," said Tom Lynch,
I.B.M.'s director for global employee relations.
The outsourcing of good jobs has been under way for years, and there
is no dispute that the practice is speeding up.
"Anything that is not nailed to the floor is being considered for
outsourcing," said Thea Lee, the chief international economist for the
A.F.L.-C.I.O.
Most of the millions of white-collar workers who could be affected by
this phenomenon over the next several years are clueless as to what
they can do about it.
They do not have organized representation in the workplace.
And government policies overwhelmingly favor the corporations.
Like the employees at I.B.M. whose holiday cheer has been dampened by
uncertainty, these hard-working men and women and their families have
little protection against the powerful forces of the global economy.
_________________________________________________________
And a Happy New Year.
Harry
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