IBM asks Obama administration for bailout money: laying off 5000 & sending the jobs to India

[Bluebear]

Friday, Mar 27, 2009 @11:43am CST

Employee rights advocates are outraged over an IBM request for a sizeable chunk of the federal government's Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In January, IBM CEO Sam Palmisano told the Obama administration the company could create one-million new jobs in 12 months with 30-billion dollars in bailout money.

But pro-union groups say there's a goods chance those new jobs won't even be in the U.S...

Alliance-at-IBM national coordinator Lee Conrad tells CNN, quote, "This to us is totally unacceptable." Many people are now asking U.S. policy makers to make sure the federal stimulus package doesn't get wasted on companies that won't create new jobs in the United States.

IBM says it needs stimulus money to pay for some of the tech-oriented infrastructure projects President Obama has talked about, such as updating power grids, creating electronic health care records and expanding broadband use.

http://mystateline.com/content/fulltext/?cid=55722

=====

Mar 27, 2009 at 0113 hrs IST

New York: International Business Machines (IBM) plans to lay off about 5,000 US employees, with many of the jobs being transferred to India, a media report said today. The technology giant has been steadily building its work force in India and other locations, while reducing the number of employees based in the US. Foreign workers accounted for 71 per cent of Big Blue’s nearly 4.00,000 employees at the start of the year, up from about 65 per cent in 2006, the Wall Street Journal said.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ibm-to-fire-5-000-us-workers-india-to-benefit/439653/

[lostnotforgotten]

1. Watch Obama Reward IBM With The Money - Bet It Will Happen

eom

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. It had better NOT happen!

:grr:

[DJ13]

5. It probably will

Obama seems to be the kind who takes people at face value, and if he likes you from the start it can blind him somewhat to being taken advantage of.

Reverend Wright is an extreme example.

When the IBM CEO was chosen to help promote the stimulus thats a signal he has already been personally approved by President Obama.

[mymessageboardid]

7. I agree

This is going to happen. Write it down. Maybe not $30B, but in the billions. When Obama immediately backed off of his campaign pledge of rolling back the Bush tax cuts for the rich right after he got elected, to simply letting them expire in another two years. Well, that was when I got that sick little feeling in my stomach that things wouldn't really be changing that much.

[lostnotforgotten]

3. Given The Track Record Of February And March - Hard To Not See It Happen

eom

[FreakinDJ]

4. NO MONEY for Outsourcing Companies

Period - end of subject

Why should the American Tax Payer be required to subsidize foreign jobs

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Absolutely right!!!

:mad: :grr:

[acmavm]

8. We will see what we will see. He hasn't given the money yet. I'd rather

pitch a fit about the crap he's done (like turn the bailout over to Goldman Sachs boys for ONE example) than what remains to be seen. Right now is the time to let them know that this is unacceptable. Then if he does it, then we'll be able see exactly who's side of this economic debacle he and his administration work for.

[Bluebear]

9. Whether he did or didn't, IBM's actions are reprehensible

[acmavm]

10. IBM action's ARE reprehensible. You are absolutely right on that one.

edit: But they are just a typical Amurikan corporation who are more than willing take the food out of the mouths of American families and they demand that the same people they're depriving pay for their business losses.

This country has SERIOUSLY lost its way.

[Tatiana]

11. So the outsourcing IBM wants to be the new corporate welfare queen?

These robber barons really have no shame, do they?

[CATagious]

12. only 29% of IBMs workforce is in America..

i work at IBM and my group is less than half the size that it was 3 years ago because of jobs going to India. And the Indians that took our jobs absolutely suck at it!