Last week, the American giant IBM, specializing in IT, announced the elimination of 1,251 jobs in France, or a quarter of its workforce across the country. This social plan is in addition to other restructurings already announced by the company: a reorganization at the global level and a split of part of the company.
It is this accumulation that worries the unions. According to Christian Bervégliéri, CFE-CGC secretary of IBM, “we are talking about more than 2,200 to 2,300 people affected by layoffs.“
Yet the establishment of IBM in the Hérault had been the great pride of Georges Frêche’s tenure. Having generated more than 3,000 jobs in the department in the 1990s, the American giant now has a meager workforce of 400 employees, which risks being halved by the end of 2021, according to the unions.
Departures to focus on the “cloud”
According to IBM France, the official reasons for this Employment Protection Plan (PSE) are the economic difficulties of the French subsidiary. But according to Denis Gras, CGT union representative at IBM, “this is the usual spiel.”
In fact, the arrival of IBM’s new CEO last April, Arvind Krishna, plays a large part in these restructurings, according to the trade unionist.
Mr. Krishna wants to refocus on more profitable activities. He has just arrived and therefore he must give return commitments to shareholders. For us, these are strategic layoffs.
To be more profitable, therefore, the other argument put forward is to focus on the “cloud”, cloud computing, which requires a lot fewer employees, ” like Uber which works without cars or Airbnb without hotels“explains Denis Gras.
Fewer employees, and above all less costs for the company. “The future IBM employees will be in India, not in France. Already half of IBM’s workforce is there, since an employee costs ten times less there than in France. The insists: “India has just suspended its labor code for the next three years, the door is open to multinationals like IBM“
“Unfair communication” from IBM
These announcements arouse the anger of the assembled unions. Of course, because jobs are threatened, but also because IBM’s communication is “unfair“according to Denis Gras.
IBM’s communication strategy is paradoxical: We [les représentants syndicaux] learned internally of the existence of this social plan last Wednesday; on the other hand, the famous split of the IBM group in two, we learned from the press at the beginning of October. Since then we have no information on the subject.
Yet this split – or rather “cession“- according to Denis Gras, can have important consequences in terms of employment. IBM wishes to separate itself from all its outsourcing part, that is to say the management of IT tasks.
According to the CGT, this would concern 25% of the French workforce at IBM. “This whole area of outsourcing uses data centers, including those of Le Millénaire and Grabels in Montpellier, explains Denis Gras. So logically, they should leave the fold of IBM, jeopardizing the hundred jobs that are generated there.“
An inter-union has been meeting since last week to examine the possible remedies against these various restructurings. The unions confirm this: “a real fight is underway.”
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