Big Blue European workers strike

Big Bleu?

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in IT Channel, 24th May 2005 15:43 GMT

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It wasn’t just BBC staffers that were on strike on Monday - IBM workers across Europe took action to protest against planned job cuts at the IT giant.

An alliance of works councils, unions and employee groups took the action to try and stymie cuts expected to claim between 10,000 and 13,000 jobs.

A statement from the 25 groups said the move expressed "our grave concern over IBM's recent announcement of job cuts of 10,000 to 13,000 employees worldwide.

"We believe the restructuring proposed by IBM senior management is the wrong direction for employees, the company and its customers.

"Let us not forget that IBM is a wealthy and successful company.”

The statement pointed out that Big Blue made $9bn in profit in 2004. They called on IBM to be open about the restructuring, talk to workers’ councils and consider other cost cutting measures apart from redundancies.

In the US employee group Alliance@IBM supported the action. Its members wore “black and blue to signify the pain caused by job cuts”. More details here.
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