Outsourced IBM Workers Denied Federal Aid

[ChromeFoundry]

Source: InformationWeek

Department of Labor turns down bid for Trade Adjustment Assistance.
April 9, 2009 12:51 PM


The U.S. Department of Labor has rejected a request for assistance by a group of former IBM (NYSE: IBM) workers who claim their jobs were offshored to China.

The workers had requested aid under the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, but a note published Tuesday in the Federal Register indicated that the request was denied. The decision applied to an appeal the workers made on an earlier denial that Labor Department handed down in February.

The workers had been employed at IBM's Integrated Supply Chain Operations unit in Hopewell Junction, N.Y. They claim that they were laid off because IBM offshored their positions to a company-operated facility in China.

IBM cut a total of 274 jobs at Hopewell Junction in January. The move was part of a larger company-wide staff reduction. Big Blue has handed pink slips to about 9,000 U.S. workers since the beginning of the year, according to labor sources and company documents.

Labor Department officials said the workers at the plant did not qualify for TAA assistance because they weren't producing a saleable product that had been displaced by imports.


Read more: http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/outsourcing/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216500105

[DemWynner]

1. Isn't their labor saleable?

I don't agree with this. service is now considered a sale able item, so if their positions are important enough to be shipped overseas instead of just going away, then it is a sale able item.

[ardvark]

2. tech workers are the nastiest political underclass one can belong to

and we wonder why kids have quit going into it

[OhioChick]

3. I recently read that Computer Science majors

are on the rise by 8%.

[ChromeFoundry]

4. I read the same article...

it can be found here:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-03-17-engineering-computer-enrollment_N.htm

[pfitz59]

5. IBM execs and shareholders profit.....

workers get shafted. Nothing to see here.... move along!

[IDFbunny]

10. A $10M bonus to CEO for cutting payroll $5M.

[cap]

6. this is a loophole because back office functions are being offshored

I guess you'd have to read the law to see if the law states explicitly "salable products" vs. administrative functions.

[1776Forever]

7. Code would be sale-able - service is not - someone dropped the ball on this - I would refute it!

Someone in the Labor Department made a very poor decision. Could the Labor Dept. have this outsourced too?
:grr:

[tomm2thumbs]

8. a lawsuit will fix this - they may as well pay'em now, or pay'em AND the lawyers later

cheaper to fess up and pay 'em what they are due

[BlueJazz]

9. "Why can't we be Paid" ??

"Look...I'm sorry,it's out of our hands...first, it's not the second Tuesday of the month (unless the month starts with a "J")..
...plus, You forgot to click your heels twice and Also..You didn't say "Mother May I" "

[Downwinder]

11. Who were the end users of the code? Is there a back door list posted yet?