Layoffs and pay cuts at IBM
In 2001, the IBM plant in Essex Junction, Vt., was the largest employer in the state, with 8,500 employees. Over the past seven years, IBM has laid off close to 40 percent of the workforce--a total of 3,200 employees. And recently, management announced large pay cuts.
SocialistWorker.org interviewed a worker, who asked to remain anonymous, about the situation at the Essex Junction plant.
CAN YOU talk about the layoffs that have taken place at the plant?
MOST OF the time when they do layoffs, it's technicians, programmers and support people, like EBIs who make calls when there are problems on the line.
Some are management, but most of them already know it's coming, and they say, "Lay me off because I'm retiring." It's almost always the workers who are getting laid off.
Usually, they have layoffs on Tuesdays, when lots of other things are going on. In November, they laid off lots of long-term supplementals. They usually do it at the beginning or the end of a shift, or sometimes at lunch. They call them out of the cafeteria or wherever, and have other people bring them their stuff and escort them out of the building.
Meanwhile, everyone on the line hears about it and starts getting nervous--some people look like they're going to be executed. It gets really emotional. Some people are crying, and everyone's upset, and management doesn't even care about them or any of the other workers. Other times, they'll just call up people at home and tell them they don't have a job.
LAST WEDNESDAY, IBM announced that it made $12.3 billion in profits last year, an 18 percent increase from 2007. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, IBM Chairman and CEO Samuel Palmisano made more than $25 million in compensation in 2007. Yet at the Essex Junction plant, management just announced major pay cuts. Can you talk about what's going on with wages and benefits?
RIGHT NOW, they just started taking away $400 a month from my paycheck. I've been working here for almost 30 years, and I'm making as much now as I did 10 years ago. We're the people doing all the work, and we're taking all the pay cuts.
Management announced pay cuts ranging anywhere from 8 to 10 percent. When there's a bad economy, it's never upper management that gets benefit or pay cuts. It's always the workers who take the cuts. There's one husband and wife that are losing $10,000 a year because of the pay cuts. You could lay off three managers, and be able to pay eight workers for the amount they're making.
And the thing is, if no managers show up to work, the plant keeps running like it normally does, but if I don't show up or another operator doesn't show up, the whole place shuts down, and the company loses millions of dollars.
WHAT'S the mood like among workers?
BACK IN the 1960s--even 20 or 30 years ago--IBM was the place to go to get a good job. Now people who've been there a long time, who saw it as a good place to work, think that it's just another big, money-making corporation that turns its back on people. The management used to give perks to good workers, but now, they don't even care about their employees.
The thing with IBM is that it's a big dog--a big corporation that doesn't care about their employees, their lives or their families, and so they start with wage cuts and benefit cuts.
So now, it's like workers view the managers as enemies, instead of buddies like they did years ago. And with the layoffs, we can't find management anywhere. They go underground and hide, because they know what they'd face from the people who're losing their jobs. The morale is very bad.
My coworkers are angry, and there's a lot of resentment. When we go into work, management says, "You should be glad you have a job." But just because you have a job doesn't mean you have to like management, or how they treat the workers. There's no respect for the people. They lie to everyone in order to take away our money.
THE IBM plant in Essex Junction is nonunion, though there are other IBM plants internationally that are unionized. Do you think a union would help IBM workers in Vermont?
THEY'VE BEEN trying to get a union there for the last seven years. A lot of people wanted it, but a lot of people didn't. Those who didn't want the union thought they'd lose their jobs. [Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders even came out and supported the campaign.
A union would definitely be good, but a lot of people are scared they'd get fired, like the air traffic controllers in the 1980s.
If they tried to unionize again, they'd probably get it. When they first tried, it wasn't as bad as this. The pay and benefits weren't getting cut, and people weren't as angry as they are now. So if they tried to unionize, they'd probably win.
