Local workers at IBM, one of the area's biggest employers, got hit by another wave of layoffs Monday.
The extent of the damage from this round is not clear, but those notified will swell the ranks of the jobless already well-represented by castoffs from Sony-Ericsson, Nortel Networks, Lenovo and others.
The cuts affected IBM operations across the nation, according to a labor union trying to organize IBM's workers.
"It's clear IBM is moving work offshore at a record rate," said Lee Conrad, national field coordinator ofAlliance@IBM.
The union reported that IBM had cut more than 1,200 jobs in the U.S. and Canada as of Monday afternoon. Conrad said the total is likely to increase as more information is collected.
Facing increasing competition, IBM has been cutting staff for years. The global technology giant employs an estimated 10,000 in Research Triangle Park. The New York-based company laid off about 10,400 people last year in North America, according to Alliance@IBM.
The cuts are paying dividends, at least on paper. Last year IBM reported a record profit of $13.4 billion, a 9 percent increase over the previous year.
An IBM spokesman did not return calls. IBM provides no information about staff reductions as a matter of company policy.
The union's Web site has become an information clearinghouse fed by workers and monitored by staff, analysts, investors, competitors and journalists as the best gauge of what's happening inside the company.
Rumors of the layoffs began circulating last week. By Monday, workers had posted updates reporting one-on-one meetings with managers in RTP, Atlanta, Denver, Lexington, Ky., and Beaverton, Ore. Many of the affected positions in RTP include software-related work.
The Alliance@IBM is the national organizing campaign for the Communications Workers of America. The organization, formed in 1999, is based in Johnson City, N.Y.
If this round is anything like previous rounds, workers are called in by managers, told they have several weeks left to work and provided with severance packages. The package includes a prohibition against talking to the media.
Mark Staser, who was laid off in May, still hasn't found work. He was told his job was being moved to Argentina. He was a business analyst who provided customer support.
When he got his notice, he reacted with relief that this stressful chapter of his life was finally over and he could now move on. He also experienced periods of denial, anger and acceptance.
The recession has sharply reduced the ranks of technology workers. Staser said the companies that are hiring are looking for a perfect fit.
"There are jobs out there, but it's a buyer's market," Staser said. "The employers can be very specific in what they want. The list of what they're looking for -- the skill set and experience -- is huge."
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Competitors have put IBM on warning that they plan to steal customers in the market for computer servers.
Today IBM is responding by introducing a new generation of servers that use up less memory and take up as little as half the space of conventional servers. IBM's marketing team for servers and related services employs about 100 people and is based at the company's complex in Research Triangle Park.
IBM is introducing the new eX5 servers at the CeBIT trade show in Germany today. The product is designed to run the business computers of such large customers as banks, retailers and information technology service providers. Company officials hope the new technology puts IBM ahead of rivals by rendering conventional servers obsolete.
The server wars heated up last year when IBM was outbid by rival Oracle to buy Sun Microsystems. Oracle made the purchase with the intention of putting a dent in IBM's 40 percent global share in the server market. Servers represent 17 percent of IBM's total sales.
The current servers on the market were derived from the desktop personal computer, said Tom Bradicich, IBM's vice president for systems technology. Bradicich, who is based in RTP, works in the lab that developed the new servers.
Adding memory on traditional servers requires the addition of more equipment into a rack at a server farm. With the new servers, customers can buy memory capacity separately without buying new servers, he said.
Staff writer John Murawski
