This month, 135 temps found out they lost their jobs at IBM at Poughkeepsie. But if the fears expressed by company employees hold true, the number of lost jobs among Big Blue workers locally and nationally may be much higher by the end of January.
The company is not commenting, as is its policy.
 “Sixteen-thousand layoffs, that”™s the number we”™ve been hearing since November,” said Lee Conrad, administrator of the Web site Alliance@IBM with postings by an IBM employee organization affiliated with the Communications Workers of America. “We are hoping none of it is true, we don”™t want anyone to lose their job. Right now it”™s just speculation. We”™re monitoring the situation.” He said the rumored figure represented IBM layoffs globally.
IBM spokesman Fred McNeese said, “It”™s IBM”™s practice to not comment on rumors or speculation. There has been no announcement.”
Conrad said that the persistence and specificity of the rumors arising on the Web site IBMemployee.com has raised the level of concern among employees. Workers are posting reports of conversations with their managers who are privately warning them of layoffs coming down later this month.
“They’re pushing hard for 1st-quarter results,” reads one posting on the site. “From what I was told the managers are being told to respond to employee questions as follows: ‘I have not heard anything specific about reorganizations/resource actions.’ If you hear that, watch out.”
The 135 confirmed job losses at the Poughkeepsie plant were under the aegis of Manpower Inc., a contractor providing temporary workers to IBM. The job reduction “is business as usual,” McNeese said. “The number of contractors (temp workers) goes up and down based on seasonal requirements.”
The company is the largest private employer in Dutchess County with some 11,500 employees at locations in Fishkill and Poughkeepsie. IBM also has employees in Armonk with a total of about 20,000 workers throughout the Hudson Valley, according to 2007 figures.Â
Many of the employees who discuss layoffs on the Web site say that Jan. 23 will be the day the ax officially falls.
A new law takes effect in New York State on Feb. 1, the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Under its provisions, notice must be provided to the state Department of Labor 90 days before a plant closing, mass layoff or relocation occurring on or after Feb. 1. It covers private employers with 50 or more workers who cut at least 25 workers.
There is obviously an economic slump affecting the global economy, but IBM earned positive numbers for the third quarter of 2008, when it posted net earnings of $2.8 billion. But that was from business largely transpiring before September”™s economic meltdown. Asked how the company is doing now McNeese again deferred comment. “We will release fourth quarter (2008) earnings on Tuesday, Jan. 20, and we don”™t discuss earnings until we make that announcement,” he said. He said the announcement usually occurs about 10 minutes after the New York Stock Exchange closes.  Â
Conrad of Alliance@IBM, said that while the rumor of 16,000 layoffs are for IBM worldwide, the consensus is that a majority would be from the United States, because the company has been sending jobs overseas to cheaper climes in recent years. And he said the company has been steadily shedding small numbers of workers from its various locales without any publicity. “One thing IBM likes to do when they have job cuts is keep it as secret as possible,” Conrad said. “So the media has to ask the question: How many job cuts in Fishkill, how many in Poughkeepsie?”
Conrad is a former worker at the company who said he was never laid off himself, but saw layoffs during his tenure with the company. “I saw friends”™ jobs get cut and it”™s just a horrible situation,” he said.
