IBM cuts jobs, including in Rochester

A day after releasing a record-setting earnings report, IBM began cutting jobs -- up to 1,400 by some estimates.
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The company confirmed generally that a job action was under way on Tuesday, but refused to provide details.

Employees did report that an unspecified number of layoffs happened on IBM's Rochester campus, though IBM would not confirm or deny that.

"I think we are getting to the point now where it is such a part of our business to where we don't ... internally view it as something that we should boast about by publicly announcing," said IBM spokesman Doug Shelton in Armonk, N.Y. "It is just not something that lends itself to that."

Lee Conrad, national coordinator of a pro-union IBM group in Endicott, N.Y., said that his information from workers was that 1,400 jobs were being cut from the Software Group across the company's sites.

However, it is still impossible to gauge how many workers actually lost their jobs.

"Once again, IBM just cuts and doesn't announce it," Conrad said.

Shelton explained IBM's reluctance to discuss layoffs as stemming from how commonplace they are.

"What I can tell you is it is part of the way IBM manages resources and skills, and it really is an ongoing component of our business model," Shelton said. "It has been the way we've managed our business for some time."

Shelton also said that such employee cuts typically do not mean IBM is getting smaller.

"We do this continuously throughout the year," he said. "We typically end the year with more people than we started with. It tends to balance out. People come in and people leave."

For his part, Conrad predicted more cuts will be made by IBM during the next few days, and more will be made on Jan. 27 in the Systems and Technology Group.

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BY Jeff Kiger
Source：Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

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