Since IBM announced record profits in January, the nation”™s largest technology employer has cut 2,700 jobs in the United States, according to an outside group that monitors IBM policies. That group is calling for new laws that would require IBM to guarantee it will use American workers to fulfill contracts with any level of American government, from villages up to the feds.
IBM remained mostly mum on the issue.
On Jan. 19, Big Blue reported for 2009 a record profit of $13.4 billion for the year, up 9 percent from 2008’s net profit of $12.3 billion. The company’s revenue fell to $95.8 billion last year, down from $103.6 billion a year before. IBM was able to boost its profit despite lower sales by cutting more than $9 billion of costs and expenses.
A Â group called Alliance@IBM, a union supported group, said IBM cut thousands of jobs in the United States in 2009 while increasing its overseas work force. When the record profits were announced, Alliance spokesman Lee Conrad, a former IBM employee, predicted layoffs of IBM”™s American work force would quickly follow.
Within weeks of the January announcement, he said last week, the Alliance began receiving reports from IBM facilities nationwide of jobs being cut in an array of company endeavors. According to its website, Alliance@IBM, the work force cuts domestically totaled 2,700 workers by mid- March 15.
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While Alliance figures do not break out job losses by location, it is believed the company cut several hundred jobs from facilities in the Hudson Valley in the latest round of job cuts. State records show about 1,000 jobs were cut by IBM in Dutchess and Orange counties  in 2009 reducing its Hudson Valley work force to below 10,000 for the first time since 1999.
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According to Alliance, IBM had 105,000 U.S. workers at the end of 2009, down from 115,000 in 2008, continuing a trend that saw its domestic work force shrink from about 134,000 workers in 2005.
“So you”™ve got a number of factors all pointing toward getting rid of U.S. workers and I don”™t think there is any end to this trend,” Conrad said. “The big driver here is off-shoring the work force to cut costs. About 80 percent of these cuts are related to that.”
Conrad said the Alliance has reports from IBM employees that the company is bringing in foreign workers under L-1 visa worker rules and that such guest workers work on client accounts in the United States.
IBM essentially stands by its policy of not commenting on job related issues. “The only thing we”™ve said publicly is we remix our skills and structures to meet the changing needs of our clients,” said Doug Shelton, an IBM spokesman. He would not comment on questions about bringing in foreign workers for temporary assignments.
Asked for comment on Conrad”™s statement that IBM is “abandoning American workers,” Shelton again refused comment. “But I”™ll say this,” said Shelton. “IBM is the largest technology employer in the United States and the largest technology employer in the world.”
According to the Alliance, IBM hired tens of thousand of workers overseas in 2009, citing IBM reports as their source. Big Blue hired some 13,300 workers in the Asia-Pacific region outside Japan, where about 850 workers were hired. IBM hired 18,800 people in India in 2009, and 7000 in Latin America. Meanwhile, the company hired some 3,500 workers in the United States and 2,900 in Europe.
Conrad said there is one avenue where U.S. taxpayers may be able to influence company decisions on job assignments: in the arena of government work. Conrad said IBM has tens of millions of dollars in contracts annually from governments in the United States, and said Congress should pass a law that requires Big Blue to use American citizens for fulfilling contracts with any American government entity.
Shelton said the company would have no comment on the matter.
