Why I support Unions in High Tech
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Dial U for Union
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I'm one of the union organizers quoted in the Red Herring article -- I work for IBM. With all the discussion here about pro-and anti-union viewpoints, I want to state why many IBMer's want a union, which is for a reason that has not come up here.
For 20 years that I worked for IBM, the company promised excellent benefits in return for a competitively low salary. After I put in these 20 years, management decided to virtually eliminate retirement benefits that were promised (pension and medical). Some employees lost a total of $300-$400K worth of future benefits. All this happened when the company is in great financial shape, with a pension fund overfunded by $11 billion dollars (meaning that much is LEFT OVER after paying out to all retirees in the future).
Is this legal? Yes. Have we been cheated? Yes. No one can tell me they would be willing to have this happen to them. All you programmers who think you've got it made by negotiating your own salary and benefits -- be forwarned, that can change at any moment unless you have an employment contract.
So what can we do, sue the company? Sure but that could take 7-10 years and IF we win, all the money recovered may go to legal expenses.
So what else can we do? Form a union, which has a legal right to negotiate a written contract so that at a bare minimum, IBM cannot legally take back benefits that were once promised.
CWA is not telling IBMer's we need a union. We, the employees, called CWA for help. We just want to stop being cheated.
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I'm one of the union organizers quoted in the Red Herring article -- I work for IBM. With all the discussion here about pro-and anti-union viewpoints, I want to state why many IBMer's want a union, which is for a reason that has not come up here. For 20 years that I worked for IBM, the company promised excellent benefits in return for a competitively low salary. After I put in these 20 years, management decided to virtually eliminate retirement benefits that were promised (pension and medical). Some employees lost a total of $300-$400K worth of future benefits. All this happened when the company is in great financial shape, with a pension fund overfunded by $11 billion dollars (meaning that much is LEFT OVER after paying out to all retirees in the future). Is this legal? Yes. Have we been cheated? Yes. No one can tell me they would be willing to have this happen to them. All you programmers who think you've got it made by negotiating your own salary and benefits -- be forwarned, that can change at any moment unless you have an employment contract. So what can we do, sue the company? Sure but that could take 7-10 years and IF we win, all the money recovered may go to legal expenses. So what else can we do? Form a union, which has a legal right to negotiate a written contract so that at a bare minimum, IBM cannot legally take back benefits that were once promised. CWA is not telling IBMer's we need a union. We, the employees, called CWA for help. We just want to stop being cheated.