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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."
Can this rescue our economy?
Perhaps if it reaches India and China.
---We don't need no stinking unions.---
Help end the use of Sigs. Tomorrow
I guess making the task of finding which employees to can has just been made easier... they can just fire those who don't show up to work!
European workers are known for their inability to deal with change. A story my manager told me about his brother who works for an international bank and was once sent to France. The facility discontinued a particular wine in the cafeteria (yes, wine for lunch in the cafeteria) and the employees threated to strike over it. Talk about spoiled!
When will the Europeans figure out that their polite, silent walkouts, singing songs, sitting down in the corridors, etc... are viewed with a certain amount of amusement by US companies who are used to associating the word strike with picket lines?
IBM is going to do what's right for IBM. (western) European workers are very highly paid, work on average about 35 hours per week, get 5-7 weeks of paid vacation, and phenomenal benefits (most state supplied, but paid for through employer subsidies).
IBM can get the same work done cheaper China/India/etc. What's their incentive for paying more for the same result?
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Hey, don't knock it just 'cause you ain't got it.
The fact is, the Europeans are living the "American Dream." I, for one, am tired of us Americans whining about it, when instead we can do something about it.
We lost our own "Dream" when we started electing politicians who pray to the God of Capitalism.
guys.. please stop the socialism. Fire those IBM paperpushers and let the free market make men out of them. Union members regardless of occupation have small penises. Guys.. plase do humanity a fovour .. read economics in one lesson by henry hazlitt... those rich IBM shareholders will have to spend that prifit somewhere creating more useful jobs
If you have no use for them, why did you hire them?
Speaking as a citizen who votes and pays taxes, exactly what compels me to permit my government to grant you a corporate charter or a business license?
Social what?!?! How is running a corporation a privilege? I see you are from the UK: that might explain why. You do not have to get permission to do commerce, whether to the extent IBM does or the mom-and-pop video store down the street. In a capitalist economy (which the UK supposedly has to some extent, and admittedly the American economy is not even close to completely capitalist), you can run your business the way you want to run your business (for the most part, saving the various social legislation we have, i.e. racial and sexual discrimination). While you may not approve of the policies of many of the "big corporations", I think the "evil conspiracy" theory is a bit worn out and serves no purpose other than to displace the blame of not having a job (or as successful of one) from yourself to those scapegoat corporations. Social responsibility is most definitely at this discretion of the employer, and I would say that by giving paid vacation, sick leave, health benefits, and other social services to employees, most companies are doing a fairly adequate job of fulfilling their so-called "social responsibility." To equate social responsibility with keeping 10-13k now-needless employees is just ludicrous.
Governments know NOTHING about running business and should keep their noses out. If an employer makes a bad decision letting a good guy go, his competitors will benefit.
Umm, we OWN this country. It's OURS. Whatever happens in it, it happens because WE made it that way. The way I see it, if America can provide a cushy living for everyone, but makes NO ONE rich, that is fine with ME.
But the rich people and corporations have filled your head so full of elite-centered propaganda, you are like some kind of unthinking animal....
eat shiat and bark at the moon
Wow. Wow... You need to understand that America is the richest country in the world because of capitalism. Our poor people have cars and fridges because of the innovation of the greedy. This really isn't a very complicated concept to grasp so why don't people get it? Our taxes are low but 20% of a trillion is more than 70% of a billion. I guess I'm being harsh, I was a Deomocrat for a while except that whole preponderance of evidence thing finally got to me.
What if Digg added local news and a Slashdot inspired comment karma system? ---
http://houndwire.com
"workers, meanwhile, have given the best of themselves to a company"
I suspect that if that were true, IBM wouldn't be able to afford to lay them off. Maybe you've never seen a large group of real human workers. Show me where I can get 10,000 workers that give the best of themselves to a company instead of stealing office supplies and using the photocopier for personal copies and I'll relocate.
"Wealth is a limited resource"
Uh... what? That's like saying 'happiness is a limited resource', or 'ideas are a limited resource'.
"individuals and groups, a.k.a. parasites"
So now individuals are parasites on nations?
"if this is just plain old cost cutting then IBM deserves to suffer as a result"
Pursuit of an efficient workplace deserves punishment? Inefficiency will make society better?
None of this makes sense. Who believes such things?
"this is a class issue"
Oh, yes. Those people.
Sell your poison somewhere else, comrade.
Europe's workers, with their 35 hour work week, are also veiwed as extremely lazy.
View that way by Americans. Europeans think we're work-a-holics.
How likely do you think it will be that when these abused immigrants hold a majority that they will vote to continue transferring their wealth to a bunch of infidels?
Very likely. Look at the last national election in the US. If they can sell that, they can sell anything. All they have to do is find a scapegoat, and they will be able to rally the population to any cause. So the Anti-Infidel Party will come to power mouthing platitudes about sticking it to the infidel elite, all the while looting the gullible population and continuing the wealth transfer to the same corporate oligarchy that funds their political campaigns. It's worked in the US, don't see why it wouldn't work in Europe.
Edith Keeler Must Die
Are these the same Europeans that get 30+ days of vacation a year and 30-hour workweeks? I spent most of my life in Europe...I was born there. Most "workers" are lazy bums...socialists who want corporations to support their lamest "needs" like company cars, full retirement paid by the company, union fees and expenses, very long paid vacations, company cafeterias..etc, and they use the socialist governments to force private corporations to deliver all these things. I hope IBM fires them all and moves all their factories back to the U.S. Surely it's harsh, but reality is harsh. Most Americans are successful because they are hard workind. Most Europeans are successful because they vote people that give them stuff...enough is enough.