|
IBM workers organize to protect pensions
|
Garrett Lanzy
IBM
Advisory Software Engineer
Endicott,New York
'We pressured
IBM into withdrawing some of its pension
changes and generated congressional hearings.'
|
I’m the technical leader of a team developing and maintaining Internet applications which run on IBM eserver iSeries 400 systems. I am also a member of the local and national organizing committees of Alliance@IBM, a CWA affiliate. I joined shortly after IBM announced changes that would have reduced my pension by about 20 percent and slashed my retiree medical plan from lifetime coverage to just 4 or 5 years.
We asked CWA to help us because it is one of the few unions with significant experience representing engineering and software development professionals, and because its organizing philosophy empowers members to take an active role in determining our future.
We’ve accomplished a lot. We pressured IBM into withdrawing some of its pension changes, generated congressional hearings, and held seminars educating employees on their rights. We also led the most
successful first-time effort by employees in U.S. corporate history to adopt a share-holder resolution opposed by management.
Many times I have been asked, "if you’re upset, why don’t you get another job?" But working conditions are similar across the "high-tech" industry. The only way employees can truly have an effect is to take charge and exercise their rights under the law to organize.
|
|
|
|
'We’ve accomplished a lot. We have pressured IBM into withdrawing some of its pension changes, generated congressional hearings, and held seminars educating employees on their rights.'