A quote from retired CEO and Chairman Sam Palmisano is at the heart of a shout-out from unions representing IBM workers to Big Blue management  that the time has come for major changes.

Bottom line: Less talk about earnings per share of $20 by 2015 and more talk about the value of employees.

“The greatest invention ever created by IBM is the IBMer.”

So said Palmisano in 2003, the unions point out, in their joint statement that was issued Thursday. The statement is a collaborative effort of Alliance@IBM in the U.S. (a Communication Workers of America local) along with the IBM Global Union Alliance, with the UNI, and IndustriALL. The unions met earlier this month in Europe to discuss strategy after IBM spent some $800 million on a “workforce rebalancing” (primarily layoffs) program in the first quarter. 

The statement cites IBM “Roadmap” strategies set out in 2010 and 2015 to drive up earnings per share and management’s sticking to those goals as leading to job cuts, low employee morale, lack of raises, and spending billions on share buybacks rather than in what the unions call more “meaningful investments.”

“Since the announcement of the Roadmaps 2010 and 2015, IBM has mutated into a company dedicated to financial management. The most important asset of IBM, the IBM employee, has degenerated as a means to an end. Earnings per share (EPS) have become the corporation’s most important goal. Lack of appreciation of its own employees threatens to undermine the corporation from the inside out. The employees who have made the IT giant a driver for innovation and the world-record-holder in patent applications [have] already begun to lose faith in their own employer. The fact that IBM has not published the results of the recent staff survey for six months is a strong indicator of poor morale and motivation of the workforce.”

Key points include:

  • A roadmap that does not focus on the EPS, but is concentrated on the appreciation of IBMers.
  • The participation of all IBMers in a new jam about IBMs future.
  • Meaningful investments instead of focussing on the EPS.
  • Good working conditions, fair evaluation systems, appropriate participation of all IBMers in the success of the corporation by salary increases and other benefits of IBM for its employees.
  • Worldwide recognition of trade unions as partners in social dialogue and partners for collective agreements.

The full statement can be read online.

IBM employs some 7,500 people in North Carolina. Most of those are based in RTP.

Approximately 2,000 of those are expected to be transferred to Lenovo if government regulators approve Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s x86 server business.