http://www.siliconbeat.com/2017/01/23/ibm-promises-trump-friendly-u-s-jobs-but-is-firing-american-workers-report/
As companies fall all over themselves to hype creation of U.S. jobs, IBM is catching flak for promising thousands of new ones while firing folks right and left, a new report said.
Company CEO Ginni Rometty said in a December USA Today op-ed that her firm would hire 25,000 people for U.S. positions in the next four years, 6,000 of them this year.
“She didn’t mention that International Business Machines Corp. was also firing workers and sending many of the jobs overseas,” said a Jan. 23 report from Bloomberg.
Big Blue wrapped up its third round of 2016 firings — or “resource actions” in IBM HR parlance — in late November, and job losses for the year likely totaled in the thousands, current and former employees told Bloomberg.
Many of the jobs were shipped to Asia and Eastern Europe, and the firings have continued into this year, employees said.
“This month, IBM started notifying more U.S. workers that they would be let go,” Bloomberg reported.
However, IBM said that over the next four years, its U.S. workforce will increase — if it can fill the 25,000 planned positions. Company spokesman Doug Shelton said IBM makes more than two-thirds of its services revenue in foreign lands.
A number of IBM workers were not pleased by Rometty’s language in the USA Today piece, and took to message boards and Facebook to gripe, according to Bloomberg.
“Some complained that the new recruiting drive wouldn’t offset jobs sent overseas in recent years. Others said Rometty had neglected to mention whether and how many people would be fired in the meantime. Some urged online communities to contact the Trump transition team and educate his aides about IBM’s history of layoffs and outsourcing.”
President Donald Trump, while awaiting his ascendance, pledged to impose a 35 percent tax on goods firms that move production overseas send back to the U.S. Some companies have since said they were putting on hold plans to move jobs out of the country.