IBM job cut toll doubles to 3,000 - union
Vendor boss Ginni Rometty comes under fire from staff union that claims she has neglected workers
The number of IBM staff set to lose their jobs has almost doubled to nearly 3,000 in the past fortnight, according to an employee union, which claims chief executive Ginni Rometty has "neglected and disrespected" workers.
Earlier this month, the US-based Alliance@IBM union claimed on its website that the vendor had laid off more than 1,600 staff. It now claims the figure stands at 2,930.
The union group, which claims to want to preserve and improve the rights and benefits of those working at the vendor, said "a fair amount of anger" is directed towards Rometty and other execs for failing to give affected staff an explanation.
"Workforce rebalancing" plans were announced during IBM's first-quarter conference call last month after the vendor posted an annual net income dip of one per cent to $3bn (£1.94bn). Q1 sales were down year on year by five per cent to $23.5bn.
The Alliance@IBM issued a statement which said some staff were calling on Rometty (pictured) to leave.
"There is a growing employee ‘vote of no confidence' in the running of the company by Rometty. Some say [she] should be fired. We are at a crossroads. Do we allow Rometty and others to continue abusing employees or do we fight back? It's your choice," the statement read.
"Since the resource action began, none of the IBM executives have sent out messages of regret or explanation to workers terminated in their divisions.
"The leadership only cares about money. In the drive to reach the goals of [its] road map [for] 2015, chief executive Rometty has neglected and disrespected IBM's greatest asset - its employees."
The union claims jobs across some 43 divisions of the vendor have been cut, with the highest casualties coming from its Software Group Information Management arm, which will lose 137 staff, with its Software Group Industry Solutions and Software Group Collaboration seeing 126 and 115 respectively set to go too.
It is unclear how many UK staff might be affected by the move, and IBM said it could not comment on specific details of the cuts.
In a statement, Big Blue said: "Change is constant in our industry and transformation is an essential feature of our business model.
"Consequently, some level of workforce remix is a constant. Given the competitive nature of our business, we do not publicly discuss the details of staffing plans."
The Alliance@IBM statement quoted an anonymous employee who claimed senior leaders were being cowardly by not communicating with staff about the job cuts.
"Where are all those executives who celebrate our product releases? Now when the situation is less convenient they run away and hide. No comments, no statements. No communication with the infantry," the source said.