It is 'old wine in a new bottle' at its finest. "Reclassification" is among the newest euphemisms that enable employers to cut the hours, wages, and benefits of their employees--but IBM workers are fighting back.
Today (April 29th) a protest is being waged at an IBM annual meeting in Charlotte, N.C., by members and supporters of the Alliance@IBM Communications Workers of America. Some of the dominant issues include offshoring of jobs, shrinking pensions, and--the relatively new term on the block--"reclassification". Essentially, reclassification seeks to do what all other cost-cutting measures by an employer do--effectively lower wages, reduce benefits, restrict hours, etc. In the case of IBM, many workers are now being reclassified as hourly-wage workers, rather than salaried workers. One article on the matter reports this to effectively be a 15% pay decrease. Many cases are coming to the courts in an effort to outlaw the practice, but in the meantime, businesses are taking full advantage of its benefits.
What makes this tactic especially egregious is that IBM, in the financial world, has received applause for its recent economic success. Just today, in fact, the company, known widely as Big Blue, announced that it had raised its quarterly cash dividend by 25%.
Isn't it so easy to be successful when the welfare of your workers is none of your concern?
Throw into the mix that the economy is approaching uncertain and precarious times, with the prices of fuel and food rising unabatedly, and you end up with a seemingly hopeless situation for the workers. They'd better take whatever the boss gives them, right? Something is better than nothing, right? Might as well give up, right?
The IBM workers, who are using an innovative union model without government certification, say, "Wrong." As Alliance@IBM organizer, Lee Conrad, has rhetorically asked, "Do we always need that kind of tension, whether it's picking between having a pay cut and having a job?" Employers everywhere need to know that we workers will not stand for such degrading and debilitating choices.
They may be seated behind a computer rather than on a shop or showroom floor, or behind a sales counter or cash register, but the pressures that the IBM workers currently face are universal. Cost-cutting--regardless of what one wishes to call it--threatens each and every one of us in the retail and food sectors. Their fight, taking place amid enormous odds and profit-driven pressures, is inspiring. But above all, it is proof that only if we come together, do we stand a fighting chance.