IBM Workers Braced For More Job Cuts

A website that solicits IBM employees has warned that staff are expecting a fresh round of redundancies, despite the improving financial fortunes of the company.

According to WRAL.com, the website for a TV station in the Raleigh, NC, area, the majority of the expected job cuts are expected to come from IBM’s Research Triangle Park, NC, facilities.

The cuts are expected to come as part of what IBM refers to as an “RA” or “resource action,” said Lee Conrad, national coordinator for the http://www.endicottalliance.org/, a group pushing to unionise IBM employees. The Alliance@IBM website features a “job cuts reports” section where posters identifying themselves as current and former IBM employees cite job losses they have witnessed or experienced.

In an email alert, Conrad said:

“Bay Area Lab (Foster City, CA) – Software (WebSphere Process Server development and support). Big RA on Monday 03/01. Estimated 40-50% will be RA’d in the lab.1on1s ready for Monday morning. It’s really sad after a huge effort in the 4th quarter working late nights and weekends for nearly 3 months. Other labs in San Francisco Bay Area-Silicon Valley will be affected.”

One anonymous poster on March 1 wrote: “Job Cuts across GBS (div 5): operations and practitioners. Around 30% in my area alone (operations).”

Another March 1 poster identified at “RTPGuy,” said: “Layoffs happening with WebSphere Application Server, AIM in RTP this morning.” And yet another March 1 poster to the site, identified as “irRational,” said, “Layoffs happening today in Rational Software, Lexington MA.”

An IBM spokesperson contacted for comment on the RA said the company has no comment.

However, according to the Alliance@IBM, Big Blue has cut its employee ranks by nearly 30,000 over the last five years – from 133,789 in 2005 to 105,000 in 2009.