Join your fellow employees who are fighting for your benefits - Join the Alliance!

Retirees, Vendors, Contractors, Temps, and Active Employees are all eligible to become members of the Alliance.

• Washington Post: A New Consensus on Universal Health Care. By Steven Pearlstein. Excerpts: On the surface, it looked to be just another Washington news conference, part of the white noise of the political and policy process.
  But this one was different. There, at the National Press Club, stood the president of the Business Roundtable, representing the country's largest corporations; the president of the Service Employees International Union, the country's most vibrant union and one of its fastest-growing; and the president of AARP, the formidable seniors lobby. They put aside their usual differences to deliver a clear, simple message to President Bush and congressional leaders of both parties:
  We stand ready to give you the political cover you need for a centrist, bipartisan fix for a broken health-care system. Or, if you refuse, we stand ready to embarrass you and run you out of office.
• Chicago Tribune: Few retirees facing loss of health benefits. By Tami Luhby. Excerpts: The good news is that most retirees lucky enough to have employer-sponsored health benefits are going to keep them this year. The bad news is that they will have to pay a lot more out of their pocket for medical care, especially if they are younger than 65. [...]
  However, premiums for new retirees increased in 2006 an average of 15.1 percent for those younger than age 65 and 9.6 percent for those eligible for Medicare. Pre-65 retirees paid an average of $227 in monthly premiums, while older ones paid an average of $110. Retirees of all ages were responsible for about 41 percent of their total premiums. [...]
  "People who worked their whole lives to earn retiree health coverage are now having to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for it," said Drew Altman, Kaiser's chief executive. Current workers, however, will probably be even less fortunate when they retire, experts say. Ten percent of companies said it is likely that in 2007 they will terminate benefits for future retirees. (Editor's note: IBM has already terminated retiree health benefits for new employees.)

• From the Job Cuts Status & Comments page
  • Comments 1/18/07: RTP Guy, just because you can't prove that IBM is outsourcing your job to India doesn't mean that your job isn't on it's way to India along with most of the development and testing jobs in RTP SWG. My news came from a 3rd line that I know socially. It warned me that it was time to start job hunting before I had a lot of competition for jobs from several hundred other former RTP SWG employees. When information comes confidentially from those in the know, it can't be set free. -InTheKnow-
• From the General Visitor's Comment page:
  • Comment 1/19/07: I have been with IBM for 27 years now, and I too fondly recall the earlier benevolent and fun days. Like many of you, I have suffered through appraisal lowerings, no raises for years, and mandatory overtime. But, I understand and accept that the good old days are gone forever. While I share the opinions of many of the people writing comments here, I have to say that in general, these pages are filled with a collection of whiners. I despise the changes to our benefits, executive greed, and off-shoring of jobs, but the sad reality is that for the foreseeable future, this is the card hand we have been dealt.
    Regarding a union in IBM of US workers, my prediction is that it will never happen, and for the following reasons. First, the company is transitioning increasingly to a more mobile/consultant, and work-at-home work force. We also work with IBMers from around the world. The result of these changes is that face-to-face interactions with other IBMers become harder, and this undermines the sense of community, a shared identity and common issues.
    Secondly, the company wants a transient work force. All of the current HR practices point to this. The change in technology is rapid, and the company wants only the best and brightest people, and a constant influx of new talent. Forgive my sports analogy, but like a football team, you now must try out for your employment position every year. You are no longer guaranteed to be a starter.
    Cash Balance Plan, the manage the 2s out of the business, are all a geared to ensure a turnover of people. The new model for the ideal employee is one that will leave the company after 5 to 10 years. No company owes you anything - sad but true. So stop the whining, and take/accept the personal responsibility for your own future, which is the quality which has made our country great. If you don't like the environment, then leave. Look inside yourselves. Life is too short to be so miserable. And yes, I have a exit strategy which I am working on, which gets me out of this company in 18 months, and into a new career. -Reality Check-
  • Comment 1/19/07: Boycott the Spirit event! IBM wants to build up our spirit? Give us back our pension! Give us decent raises! Stop terminating older employees with trumped up performance issues! Stop offshoring our jobs! Everyone--boycott all IBM "feel good events"! -HadIt in POK-
  • Comment 1/19/07: Reality Check, it's people like you that make me sick. Instead of standing up and fighting for what was promised, you're a coward. It's OK with you that IBM executives are stealing your pension, medical, etc? You say "accept responsibility for my own future". I was promised a future for many years and IBM stole it. You adjust, I want justice. I may be a whiner, but your a brown-nose coward and probably also a corporate troll. If you don't belong to Alliance, go away. -Anonymous-
• From the Pension Comments page:
  • Comment 01/16/07: Ok. So now we went all the way to the Supreme Court, and we lost our chance to argue age discrimination any further. They refused to hear our final appeal. This was the founding issue for the Alliance; but we never rested on the assumption that this would be turned around, did we? So now what? Are IBM employees ready to do what should have been done years ago? Join Alliance. Actually talk or communicate in some way to your co-workers or your IBM retiree friends. We need a union contract. We need one NOW! It's up to all of us. No help coming from anyone but our own. Let's do this. -nobodybutme-
  • Comment 01/16/07: "IBM's lawyers told the Supreme Court that President Bush signed into a law the Pension Protection Act of 2006 that ratified the appeals court's view that such cash-balance plans do not discriminate based on age." -dumpbush-
  • Comment 01/17/07: ..."IBM's triumph in the case is a victory for employees..says Klein, because it means companies will be more likely to switch to cash balance pension plans instead of dispensing with pensions altogether.."
    Huh? Really? This is certainly not the case.
    How come IBM no longer offers ANY pension to it's newer employees and how come IBM is freezing contributions for whatever employee pension plan benefits the employees that have an IBM pension will get?
    How is that an employee VICTORY????
    The cash balance plan was solely instituted to screw the employee out of future retirement benefits so a company or corporation can save money on it's bottom line and report profits (vapor type) by not honoring it's promised obligations!! How is that an employee VICTORY??? This comment by Klein and that pension group that advises corporations on pension benefits and the like are so incested with IBM HR and Randy MacDonald; it can't be made more obvious.
    It's time for IBMers and all employees in all corporations and companies to THINK and not take the BS from these folks like Klein that think we are mindless idiots who will believe anything we hear. Don't let the rest of your benefits fall by the wayside or be interpreted in a court of law: we need our lawmakers to honor fairness and desperately need the protection and power of a contract! -whatvictory?-
  • Comment 01/18/07: Numbers don't lie, is the saying. When IBM employees realized that the IBM cash balance switch of 1999 reduced the pensions of those that served IBM the longest, by as much as 40%, the numbers must have been lying! So it seems, to our nation's highest courts!
    What happened to American values? Numbers don't lie. IBM by it owns admission designed the cash balance plan, so that younger tech workers could be enticed to work for IBM, for fast growing portable pensions. The higher pay and benefits made available to new IBM workers, was at the expense of IBM workers, after decades of loyal service. The Supreme Court's decision not to rule on Cooper vs IBM does not change the facts or the truth.
    IBM cheated older workers to pay younger ones more. Some would consider that, age discrimination but our higher courts and judges, do not seem to care. After all, they have their nice pensions as does former IBM CEO Gerstner and the rest of IBM's con-men at the helm. Seems immoral, at the very least. IBM for me is now, Immoral Business Machines! Our Supreme Courts, justices should be ashamed for not even making any remarks. -Screwedby theSC-
• Raise and Salary Comments
  • Comment 1/17/07: Salary = 60K; Band Level = 6; Job Title = IT Specialist; Years Service = 7; Hours/Week = 40+; Your Gender = Male; Message = Pay at IBM is a Joke. You do three times the work because they cut costs and staff, but every year they find a way to justify not increasing salaries. We've barely seen any kind of increase, other than an increase in responsibilities. I'm doing the work of someone in a higher band range than me, and getting paid scratch in compensation. About as funny as a gaping wound on your genitals, and just about as rewarding as well. -No-Me-Gusta-
  • Comment 1/18/07: Salary = 72000; Band Level = 6 (no kidding); Job Title = Consultant (IT Spec); Years Service = 1; Hours/Week = 40; Your Gender = m; Div Name = ITS' Location = CA; Message = I think I'm gonna stay at that salary for next few years now that I think I was given more initially -Anonymous-