Shareholders at IBM's annual meeting this week will vote on an anti-offshoring resolution.
By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
IBM workers in Europe may strike this week over what they say is the company's ongoing movement of jobs to low-cost countries such as India and China, according to union sources. Meanwhile, a U.S. employee group is asking IBM stock owners to vote on an anti-offshoring resolution at the company's annual meeting Tuesday.
Trade unions representing IBM workers in Germany have called for protests at IBM locations countrywide on Tuesday. Employee groups at IBM France have voted to strike at facilities in Toulouse and Marseille on Wednesday. IBM workers are unionized in parts of Europe but not in the United States, though some U.S. workers belong to a loosely knit employee association.
IBM union leaders in Europe blame recent layoffs and facility closings on the company's shifting of jobs to low-cost countries in Asia and Eastern Europe. In an E-mail distributed over the weekend to IBM's European workers, union officials outlined their position succinctly: "Our main slogans are no offshoring, no layoffs!" IBM employs about 100,000 workers in Europe. The company recently said it might close German offices in Hannover and Schweinfurt. <snip>
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