A bloody quarter: IBM cuts across North America climb to 3,054

“By the way I also donated to Alliance. I haven’t been a big fan of unions, but this forum has been well worth it the donation.”

So writes a soon-to-be laid-off IBM worker at the website of the union seeking to represent Big Blue employees.

Despite several years of efforts, Alliance at IBM hasn’t convinced many IBMers to sign on as members, but maybe this latest round of job cuts will open more employees’ eyes to the possibility of seeking representation.

Documents about layoffs in various work groups across IBM continue to trickle in to the Alliance. Big Blue promised big changes in the second quarter, and executives kept their word.

A “rebalancing” costing some $1 billion promised by IBM after a disappointing first quarter has struck North America, Australia and Europe especially hard with layoffs topping several thousand.

The latest update from Alliance at IBM is 3,054 workers alone across the U.S. and Canada, spread across 46 work groups.

Lee Conrad, who heads the Alliance union effort, has pleaded with affected IBM workers to forward so-called “resource action” documents that spell out how a specific work group is affected. And after an initial flash flood last month, the internal leaks have slowed. But Conrad believes there are more “RAs” out there.

IBM’s “rebalancing” has not just been job cuts, however. Big Blue has announced three new centers in Europe, for example, and has begun hiring at a new center in Louisiana.

Here’s the latest list: