IBM (NYSE: IBM) reportedly is preparing to offshore some 40 accounting jobs in Raleigh to Argentina.
Alliance@IBM, the union seeking to represent Big Blue workers, posted a report about the looming layoffs on its website.
However, a spokesperson for IBM said the report was “news to me” and a “rumor.” A check with a colleague within IBM produced a similar response, the spokesperson added.
IBM earlier this spring disclosed plans to sell its Retail Stores Solution unit to Toshiba. That move will affect several hundred IBM workers in the Triangle.
Big Blue once employed well over 10,000 people in the Triangle. That number has dropped significantly over the past several years, including workers who became part of Lenovo when that company acquired IBM’s PC business in 2006.
IBM no longer discloses how many employees it has in any geographic location, citing competitive reasons.
Raleigh Post
“Accounting in Raleigh was announced today to begin going to Buenos Aires in July 2012, completed by the end of 2013,” the post said.
“About 40 jobs.
“Primarily band 7s [IBM personnel level].
“This will end IBM’s accounting presence in Raleigh.”
Lee Conrad, the national coordinator for Alliance, said he believed the report and noted that IBM’s initial reaction to such reports is to dismiss them.
“In the past, IBM always calls these reports as rumor and speculation before they turn out to be true,” Conrad said.
The transfer of jobs to another country is part of a continuing trend at IBM, he added.
“I get emails all the time,” Conrad said. “I just got one from a guy who says his work is being sent to Malaysia.”
[IBM ARCHIVE: Check out a decade of IBM stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]
