IBM cuts U.S. jobs, seeks stimulus money

IBM is taking a three-pronged approach to dealing with the current economic crisis. It's laying off as many as 5,000 U.S. workers, transferring work to India, and seeking money from the $787 billion economic stimulus package. The cuts will primarily affect information technology and consulting work in such areas as customer relations management and supply chain management, says Lee Conrad, national coordinator of Alliance@IBM, a group seeking union representation at IBM.

"It's all about greed," Conrad told CIO-Today. "They're moving work offshore to pay lower wages and lower taxes. IBM shouldn't have their hands on stimulus money if they're off shoring work."

An article in CIO-Today outlined IBM's current strategy but did not say why the company is seeking stimulus money or how much. Nevertheless, Big Blue's plan to shift jobs overseas is part of a pattern that it has been following since 2003. In the last six years, it has hired 90,000 workers in India and more than 5,000 in Brazil to do IT and business-process outsourcing, reports CIO-Today. Meanwhile, IBM's U.S. workforce has been declining.

For more on IBM:
- check out this CIO-Today.com article

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