IBM day of action: what happened?
On June 14th IBM unions in ten countries organised different actions in IBM’s sites to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the company. In the United States where the company was founded, the alliance@IBM CWA handed out flyers in three different sites and encouraged workers to wear black shirts and blue jeans to show their discontent.
In Argentina, the union organised meetings in several IBM location as well as a press conference. A petition has also been sent out to the company. In Greece, leafleting and general meetings took place.
In Italy, UNI’s affiliate FILCAMS CGIL organised a sitting with banners in front of the IBM office in Rome and distributes leaflets. Information spreading took place in other sites in the country by the Coordinamento Nazionale RSU Gruppo IBM.
When it comes to France, all IBM unions worked together and organised protests against wage plans and distributed information during a picnic. The unions also asked workers to go on a symbolic one hour strike.
In Belgium the IBM works council met and drafted a motion asking the firm’s management to intervene at international level to make sure IBM accepts social dialogue and the respect of OECD guidelines everywhere.
In Germany, the union gave 10 symbolic presents to the countries’ general manager and distributed leaflets and a press release. You can find more details about German activities here.
Unfortunately, the most problematic situation happened again at the IBM site of Sofia, Bulgaria. On June 14th the company deployed security guards at the entrance of the company’s building to prevent any union activities that day. A letter of protest, which can be found on the “related document section of this article”, has been sent out by the union PODKREPA to the country manager.
In the Asia-Pacific region, leafleting and a general meeting of employees was organised in two Indian sites. As for Australia, the union APESMA released a report called “At the crossroads: barriers to rebuilding ICT capability post-global financial crisis” which promotes the idea of staff being a crucial asset and not a liability.
In addition, UNI global union produced a happy birthday video and a press release has been drafted together with the IMF/EMF and is attached to this article. The day of action also received some press coverage, notably in computerweekly.
Please post your comments/experiences on UNI’s blog for IBMers or on the IBM global alliance’s website provided by the alliance@IBM CWA.
Thanks a lot to all those who participated in those actions and to those who put so much efforts in organising them!