Slashdot Mirror
IBM Europe Workers Strike
csimoes writes "IBM employees in Europe are on
strike today. This is in response to the 10,000-13,000 job cuts that IBM is planning, most of them in Europe. Strikers will be wearing black and blue to signify their struggle. Here is their main union web site. Now I can't say I'm big union guy, but they do make some interesting points on their site. Such as: "IBM is a wealthy and successful company. Its first quarter profit for 2005 was $1.4 billion, and $9 billion for the whole of 2004. It increased the dividend to its shareholders, recently bought back $5 billion in IBM stock, and acquired 19 companies in 2004." The union also questions if other cost cutting mechanisms could achieve the same effect without cutting so may jobs."
Buy stock.
IBM isn't there to pamper it's employees. It's there to pamper it's board of directors, and, eventually, the shareholders.
The workers? Fuck'em. They've been paid for all the work they've done for IBM so they're in the least position to squeal about it.
Don't like it? Well, make a revolution. Until then, that's how it works.
If the Europeans don't want to do the work, let's move those offices back to America. I'm sure tons of Americans could sure use the work. =)
/w unemployed workers that could use the job without the need to hide behind sissy unions.
There's also a large list of other countries
Good for IBM. Screw the unions. They don't care about what IBM is doing, and the "statistics" they provide on their site are meaningless and irrelevant. Stop bitching and deal with it; at least here in America, corporations intend to make money, not keep employees just to be benevolent. 3 capitalism. ;)
A boatload of jobs are going to get cut, so a bunch of idiots decide to go on strike.
--- Asking inconvenient questions for over 30 years...
You don't like your pay, bonuses, benefits? If you think you can do better, leave. If not, put your head down, be glad you have achieved the best that you can get and STFU
Well, stock price and market capitalisation is only gambling for idiots that think they dont gamble.
I guess in your eyes, amazon really was a bigger and better company then general electric back in the times of the bubble.
(btw: your whole posting style makes it rather sad that you posted as AC. Would have been nice to know one to put against to wall when the revolution comes. You are one of the people that lead to companies getting bigger and bigger monsters and pushing humans in the background)
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
You've been watching too much Fox News
I imagine parent was a joke, but I would suggest recognizing the kernel of truth in it. Europe has a problem. The rest of the world is catching up in productivity or in price. The European economy is facing pressure from both ends of the stick. On one hand you have emerging third world economies like India where people will work long hours for cheap. On the other hand you have the Americans who are famously productive, but work for a high pay. Europe is losing on both ends. On one hand the richer or comparable priced American employees are working longer and are more productive, and on the other hand there is cheap labor in third world nations that are quickly catching up in terms of productivity. If you want to see this principle in action, look at Frances attempt to institute a 35 hour work week. It was a horrible disaster that at this point is dead in the private sector.
The rest of the world is moving towards an American work mentality. Wages go up, productivity and education go up, but hours are long and vacations are slim. In a globalized world I think Europe is going to continue to have a harder and harder time competing unless it starts to loosen up on its labor laws to stuff more work time in the year.
The other alternative of course is for Europe to move away from the globilized world (or at least hold the line). The French populace (from my outsider position) seems to be leaning this way with their leeriness towards the EU. If your nation is not dependent upon IBM or other multinational corporations that can book it once your labor starts to cost more then it is worth, then stuff like this is not a problem.
Whatever the case, I think Europe has some soul searching to do. I don't think rising globalism is going to be gentle to Europe. Europe needs to either adopt a more globalist attitude (especially in their labor laws), or makes preparations to deal the reality that there are more and more places in the world with educated and productive populaces willing to work either longer, harder, or for less. If corporations have the choice, they will pick these places over Europe. Europe certainly got to the top first, but having been first isn't going to be an advantage they can hold on to forever. The rest of the world is catching up.
Years ago, business critics screamed that CEO salaries should reflect their performance. The better the performance, the better the salary. This came mainly from LIBERAL critics of business.
So business complied.
The very best made LOTS of money. Jack Welch was revolutionary in this area. Survival of the fittest. Look at your executives. Pay the good ones lavishly to keep your competitors from them, can the rest.
And now these same critics are screaming CEOs make too much! Make up your minds.
Actually, it doesn't matter what you think anymore. If we started mandating caps on CEO compensation, the inevitable result would be the flow of of said CEO's and other executives abroad, probably to Asia, where they'd pay a killing to get a Jack Welch or a Steve Balmer.
And then the investment cash would follow them there.
The following refrain from you guys, of course, would be "don't let CEOs leave the US! It's unfair that investors are following them!"
Europeans are overpaid, compared to any other market in the world, including Japan. And their lavish social system, popular as it is here in the red tides of slashdot, is killing the economies of those countries. IBM is simply being smart canning those overpriced jobs.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
I'm an Indian student living in Europe now and the first few months I should say I was alarmed at the kind of benefits and the kind of social security Europeans get to enjoy! On the other hand, I know people in India, working at IBM, Bangalore, who slog well into the wee hours of the morning every single day, including Sundays, 365 days a year and earn a fraction of their European counterparts (ok I agree this is not that unfair to Indians partly because of currency valuations). That a kindof sounds like they deserve to get their pay for their work. But, if you're going to talk about 3 week long paid vacations (as they do in Europe), why do you think IBM would not resort to move jobs away to a more economical place?