Posted on 12/15/2003 9:41:06 AM PST by neverdem
Mon Dec 15,12:14 AM ET
In one of the largest moves to "offshore" highly paid U.S. software jobs, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - News) has told its managers to plan on moving the work of as many as 4,730 programmers to India, China and elsewhere, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported.
delayed 20 mins - disclaimer Quote Data provided by Reuters
The unannounced plan, outlined in company documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal, would replace thousands of workers at IBM facilities in Southbury, Conn., Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Raleigh, N.C., Dallas, Boulder, Colo., and elsewhere in the U.S.Already, the managers have been told, IBM has hired 500 engineers in India to take on some of the work that will be moved.
IBM calls its plan, first presented internally to some midlevel managers in October, "Global Sourcing." It involves people in its Application Management Services group, a part of IBM's giant global-services operations, which comprise more than half IBM's 315,000 employees.
IBM's plan, still under development, will take place over a number of months in stages. About 947 people are scheduled to be notified during the first half of the coming year that their work will be handled overseas in the future. It isn't yet clear how many of the other 3,700 jobs identified as "potential to move offshore" in the IBM documents will move next year or some time later.
However, the fate of some of the targeted jobs isn't certain: IBM managers still haven't figured out whether all of the work the jobs represent can be performed just as well abroad. The jobs involve updating and improving software for IBM's own business operations.
Some workers are scheduled to be informed of the plan for their jobs by the end of January. After that they will be expected to train an overseas replacement worker in the U.S. for several weeks. The IBM workers marked for replacement have 60 days to find another job inside the company, likely to be a difficult task at a time when IBM is holding down hiring.
IBM declined to comment on what it called "internal presentations."
Wall Street Journal Staff Reporters William M. Bulkeley and Peter Fritsch contributed to this article.
First of all, you can't be saying that no one has any reason to buy from IBM. But at any rate, let's expand the argument, as others on this thread have, since HP and others are doing the same thing sending jobs overseas.
You have no way of knowing that.
I'm going on the word of an IBM worker, who is not the first to say the same thing about the severance package--again, see adam_az's post way up above. He got laid off from IBM and did pretty well for himself as a result.
You're always going to have tech export problems, but again, we're talking about PC's here, not missile or satellite technology. If we want to keep this hardware and expertise out of Chinese hands, we're already too late.
I just don't see the problem here.
You know, I just bought a dropdead fabulous television for under two hundred dollars. Wow. Why shouldn't it cost two hundred and fifty? And new outfits for so much less (in inflation adjusted dollars) less than I used to pay for them when they were made in the US...
Now, how great is that? But I do wonder what the heck my kids are going to do for a living.
We are going to be the best-dressed and best-entertained poor people in the world...
So why should we care about them--you've made an argument for tariffs.
And don't leave lawyering out of the competitiveness problem. I'd say that's as bad as regulation and FAR worse than the present taxation.
Maybe. Depending on whether you are teachable. If not, then no. When the author sweepingly claims with a broad brush that ALL consumers and businesses are 'helped' by the slave labor, it should be apparent that he overstates...ignoring those who are dislocated, unemployed and subemployed as a direct result, and U.S. manufacturing and services companies that are forced under or are co-opted by the foreign-product tide...won't be in a position to benefit from any lower prices. They won't be buying much of anything...U.S. made that is. The Trade Deficit has now mushroomed to an unsustainable point yet is already scheduled to double. We are approaching a critical nexus, a 'perfect storm' when the U.S. dollar collapses, and simultaneously inflation explodes. The bullish economic forecasts besides, actual individual purchasing power is continuing to slide precipitously. (Reflecting the lower incomes).
The studies to date suggest that 14 million more U.S. service jobs are exportable to outsourcing...and likely to go in the next 6-10 years. What do you think the collateral economic 'negative multiplier' will be if those jobs are made foreign?
The studies to date suggest that 14 million more U.S. service jobs are exportable to outsourcing...and likely to go in the next 6-10 years.
If this is true, it only means that these US workers are not competitive with their foreign counterparts. Much of that is due to regulatory and tax burden on domestic industries, and your anger and frustration should be directed at this problem, not at IBM. It's in their best interest to pay as little as possible for the maximum benefit.
We are going to be the best-dressed and best-entertained poor people in the world...
Who can no longer pay their mortgages, fuel bills, medical bills, insurance bills or legal bills for when they are foreclosed upon and arrested for loitering outside the company store.
And much of it isn't. It is the national cost of living...even sans regulation and taxes, that you are decrying. You would beggar your fellow American, and begrudge their living in anything other than a quonset hut.
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