The revolution is coming. Prepare for it. Taxation without representation started the last reveloution in this country. When men feel they have no other choice, they will put down thier tools, and will join. Take heed you whigs in Congress and the Senate. You are repeatng history, you will become history.

Well said px208 but can I just add that your comments equally apply here in the U.K. and most of Europe.

IBM is pissed because APPLE took a crap on them by switching to INTEL lol...also, there to blame for letting windows become free for all money sucking machine lol

The working class guy get screwed agasin, but all the big executives get millions of dollars in severance pay and etc. It's not just that you have put 21,000 Americans out of work. You have also shipped the technology to another country. You educate them with these skills for free while our students pay huge dollars for an education only to find no job waiting for them. And all the support industries end up laying off people too. Greedy wealthy people and cheap politicians WILL be the destruction of this country. And of course cowboy Bush's policies encouraging it should not be overlooked. This sort of tyranny is why America was founded. It seems to have followed us here.

This sucks, I hate this. How are they planning on selling their products if people will have no jobs over here in US? Plus don't they realize that consumers are getting screwed by moving tech support and other jobs to India. I had to call Dell Once and Intuit once for a problem and talked to some one from India after 1 hour on the phone they still ask me so what is going on, I was like you are kidding me right and I hung up. This is outrageous US Gov't needs to do something about this and stop this. We need to keep US jobs in US.

The thing is not only are they cutting jobs but their own customers.

There needs to be some groups put together to show Congress, and the Media the destruction of the Tech Sector.

As mentioned it is stealing from us the ones who spent time and money only to log it into data bases to help people in sweat shop call centers get a job.

Let's get Tech Teachers, top I.T. people together and take pictures of the faces of the victims that has their lives destroyed to greed.

We try to better our selves, we try to have high levels of education to help drive the future and we get spit on by CEO's and CIO's whom most are not capable of being effective.

Yeah blam Techs for Ceo's and Presidents, and Vp's etc in bussiness spending Millions on Tech Devices to have as toys and they blam the I.T. people for expense.

There needs to be fines of $50,000.00 per employee cut, + 4 years of Training and all expenses to help get people back on thier feet.

So when you CEO's smile giving your kids their Mp3 players, Thier Laptops, their new cars, etc., Smile at them and say hey I destroyed a few hundred other familys so you can have it so well.

You are cutting Jobs, Destroying Lives of Teachers as well and the economy, You are loosing customers due to poor Tech Support by cutting the quality workers, which turns many off. You are also too stupid to lower cost on the products to make up in volume.

Don't you idiots get it in 5 years you keep cutting and it still is not working. For once admit that you have made a mistake. Bring our Jobs and Lives back. Unless your too spineless which seems to be proven other wise.

I am disgraced that I bothered to Vote funny Jeb in Florida tried to create education to help people get jobs including Operation Pay Check in Florida included M.C.S.E., Orcale, etc training and yet his brother thinks more of non Us Citizens then his own. Talk about conflicts.

Thanks Jeb now I am more disgusted because I put time into training and certifications only to say well look at a piece of paper that means nothing except to show that a Truck Driver can now earn more then a I.T. person.

And to all of you who have said you want to boycott all the companies who use Indian telephone representatives, I want to see you stop using The United States Postal Service to pay bills/send letters/transfer information. Let's see you do that. And if you stop paying bills that way to use ePay, I'll have you know, using BillPay, guess who is now using the USPS. That would be your BillPay provider. So lets get real. You won't stop using all companies who use India as a source of employment. Sure they have hubs in Orem, UT and Denver, Co but they also have one in India.

To "WAV" Writing a comment that makes sense in grown up, joined up English would certainly help.
Point proved about Indian call centres!
We have had negative political campaigning now it seems we are getting negative replies. Two wrongs do not make a right!!!

It sounds to me that the U.S.A. is just as bad as the U.K. for exporting jobs.
In the U.K. you can hardly phone your bank or all sorts of other services without being patched through to India or Pakistan.
This has got to be stopped now! Companies are giving them our jobs at the cost of jobs in our own countries just to save money. The laughable thing is that they don't mind taking our money for their goods and services, then turn around and give our jobs away.
I now absolutely refuse to do business with any companies that do this and if everyone else did likewise, they would soon bring our jobs back!

Money rules the world.

Republicans and Congress are selling the US down the drain. IBM is just another sheep. When you vote, vote for someone who cares about your job at home, not sending it overseas for a tax break and big political donation.

I am sick of this. Every time it is move to India. You know today I was working a TEMP job 1st tech job in about a year and the other 4 I was working with on the assignment all said it has been a year.

Me and these temps I worked with have about 40 years plus of I.T. between us.

This is not right. Why doesn't anyone believe in AMERICA any more. Just a bunch of sell outs trying to save a buck for Stock prices to stay up.

If a natural disaster ever hits India it will bring about 1/3 of our Company's to their knees since they have dumped all these jobs.

It is ridiculous. For anyone to say this is not bad try loosing a job that was paying $30,000.00 and make less then 17k a year. Try looking at people with pride knowing you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for training only to be treated like a low life.

Not only is this destroying the I.T. sector it is also destroying peoples lives. Even Tech Schools are going down in flames.

It's the quick buck save and long term demise. To take away peoples lives with years of Schooling and Education College and Tech School.

I wish we would have a Million Tech Worker March on the White House Lawns and make these CEO's have to look at the faces of the Lives they have destroyed. Look at our Children's Faces whom thought that perhaps they wanted to be Techs, System Engineers, Network Admins, and to realize that they now have a better chance as a Burger Flipper.

I dare the CEO's of these Company's to be able to stare face to face with the people whom they sold out.

To me it's a act of Treason : Etymology: Middle English tresoun, from Old French traison, from Latin tradition-, traditio act of handing over, from tradere to hand over, betray -- more at TRAITOR
1 : the betrayal of a trust : TREACHERY
2 : the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign's family

For once does anyone have any Patriotism left besides our dying soldiers? Does anyone have one ounce of Pride and belief left? Does anyone give a D*mn anymore?

Enough of these sell outs and these storys. Let's see something positive and something that shows a bit of Americian Pride.

Umm - outsourcing is nothing new - look at the label on your s***, or your shoes, or your coffee cup - "Made in (fill in the blank)" - try China, Taiwan, Phillipines. If you're going to make a fuss about outsourcing of jobs, I think it's a bit too late for that, unless you think it's OK for someone in China to make your shoes, but it's not OK for someone in India to develop the software for your PC.

A lot of commentary on this topic fails to look at the big picture, thus descending into flame warfare:

Firstly, outsourcing has gone on since the beginning of time, and will always occur-- to everyone: there is now a hue and cry in India due to its outsourcing losses to China... in turn in China due to its losses to smaller emerging economies, etc.

Outsourcing is a small component of competition-- and at times a necessary evil, just like a bankruptcy-- both of which are necessary to improve a local economy in a capitalist system.

Outsourcing provides many benefits, chiefly-- it's used more and more as a nation's economic / technological statii rise: a lot of drudge / manual / repetitive work gets farmed out and more inexpensively-- think about it this way: do we want our country to keep improving on its way to intelligentsia and private entreneurship? In other words, do we wish to be a nation of managers, consultants, private contractors / business owners, inventors / developers / thinkers, or do we wish to be a nation of manual laborers and mindless corporate drones? Such a society would of necessity lean to the left, as a huge component of it would be of a mindset that would require Socialist policies & be forever dependent on the welfare of others, from entities like unions(w/ their anti-productive work rules & artificially high-wages(who can do the least work for the highest wage, and never be fired-- even for poor performance), as well as government / politician bureaucrats thru business-busting over-regulation to supposedly protect workers, and beaucoup welfare programs.

Now, nowhere in this article is it clarified whether the IMB job cuts will be achieved through immediate pink slips or gradually thru mormal attrition & paid severance methods.
But, let's keep in mind that large-scale outsourcing in a large corporation is usually a sign of one of the following:

an anyhow-dying industry and/or company being kept alive a bit longer, so the outsourcing is helping in some way; or in most other cases--

it's a sign that upstarts & smaller competitors with better, faster, more personalized service are getting some of that big entity's business...
because not everything can/should be outsourced: a lot of painful individual lessons are being learned as far as quality of product & turnaround time-- many companies, to mention two specific & recurring examples, have brought back home customer service divisions, have had to re-do and/or turn in shoddy software, give price breaks / extra product to not lose that customer... and this is all part of the natural ebb & flow of a capitalist economy: there's overall downward price pressure, and as well there are those who opt for lower prices, knowing full well they risk getting what they pay for-- and those willing to pay higher for supposedly better service / product. But what we don't need is a return to the society of our parents:
a divisive society of isolationalism, protectionism, and the status quo: mono/duopolies & oligarchies dominate entire industry segments, get huge government tax subsidies & protectionist tariffs on competing imports-- combine all that with big labor at their sites making their workforces largely unproductive & overpaid, a formula that leaves the individual consumer / honest taxpayer up a shet creek w/ no paddle.
In other words: everyone out for his/herself & frig everyone else, high prices / low productivity, little inovation & entrepeneurship.

Very profesional analysis. Bravo.

It is not racism that makes people angry at outsourcing, it is your low salaries. If jobs were going to UK and being paid a fraction of the job here people would be just as mad. And increased profits of IBM will not lead to more jobs here, ever. They don't need the workers. It is just a case of the rich exploiting the poor as it always is.

The poor exploit themselves.

It's IBMs right to do what is best for the company. It's the consumer's right to choose who they buy their product from.

Considering that IBM has sold it's PC division, I doubt it has many consumer products left. Mostly mini's and mainframes and other high end stuff.

You have to expect to loose jobs when other countries can produce cheaper labour. Get use it, it's going to happen all the time.

Cool. Now I will go out of my way to NOT buy anything from IBM.

What tools.

Sure, and I will go out of my way to stop buying anything American... or european. When american corporations caused job losses in India, it was OK. When Indian air carriers buy 8 billion worth of Boeing aircraft, thats just international trade. But when an american company creates jobs here, it shoves hot pepper up your behinds. I guess it is Indians in Boeing who are going to make those planes in the US.

What a bunch of redneck racists!

redneck racists? ehh.. so

Always great to hear about the job losses here in the US.. thanks again IBM

I don't think many people care if a job moves from America to Britain(or some other European country) because the rates are pretty much the same. You lose 100 American jobs and gain $6,000,000/year, but you gain 100 European jobs, and lose $6,000,000/year. With workforces in countries with cheaper employees, you gain 200 Cheaper jobs, and lose only $2,000,000/year, and pocket the other $4,000,000 which raises your company's stock, or goes to making American CEO's rich.

This pisses off the little guys not making much - especially the ones that just got fired.

It's not your fault that companies outsource but dont you understand that they arte doing 2 evils, first they are causing thousands of us to be unemployed me being one of them and second they are screwing you because they dont pay the wage nor benefits that are paid here. Third my company went from trained techs to script readers and that meeses wkith the consumer. Fine you guys are working but dont berate us who lost their jobs, we have every right to be angry at the companies who caused it.

Just boycott all IBM products, Big Blue is a trend setter for the worse, not a following "a growing trend by tech firms" While it may be tempting to get the cheap labor, I would offer pay cuts as a option instead of job cuts. You take jobs away from Americans you lose more money to buy the very products IBM is making for Americans (mostly). Sounds like a downward spiral to me. Make products cheaper so people can afford them since more people lost their jobs then you need to make the products cheaper so people can afford them since more people lost their jobs then you need to mak... you get the point, apparently Big Blue does not.

Sure. You forgot to add that when jobs are outsourced, IBM saves money. That makes profits for its AMERICAN shareholders or gives it capital to expand and create MORE JOBS. More profits mean more money saved in AMERICA and more competitive AMERICAN products in the international market.

Are the techies so myopic they can't see this? If so, then they might even be unemployable in the first place! There isn't such a hue and cry when jobs move to the UK. In all places I see this anti outsourcing propoganda going on, racism always seems to be part of it. Gee... and I thought this world was getting over it!

And I know several hundred employees who lost their jobs due to outsourcing... the money that is saved goes to the rich... and rarely creates new jobs. Personally, moving jobs from one country to another country is going to cause animosity. It isn't like they move the jobs over and create new jobs. Why would they? That would cost more money! If someone in India (or any country for that matter) can do the job for less, then why hire someone in America (or any other country for that matter) for more?

Because we can speak clear English? No offense, but if you outsource your tech support to an outside country that is not able to speak clear English, it only creates more frustration. Personally, this is absurd and will slowly drain the US's economy. To those who would start saying 'racist', back that expression up. I'm not trying to deprive India or any other country from their opportunity to gain more economic independance. Considering over 80% of Africa's (especially Nigeria) economy is derived from scams and frauds supported by the government, there are obviously plenty of needs to fill with outsourced jobs. However, I do think the American government makes it too easy for this to happen. If you are angry at anyone for the outsourcing, be angry with the government that supports this activity by providing incentives to employers who outsource.

Okay, so being offered $17,000 per year for a salary, instead of $60,000 for doing the same job would be a viable option for you? Great! I'd keep you around as an employee, no doubt! Okay, but there's also one condition - you have to stay with the company and in your current job for at least two years after I cut your pay...

13000 cuts...14000 new jobs. That's a 0.9286:1 ratio, or a $55,716:$60,000 ratio.

Great!

this is such a crock... I'll tell you what.. any company that wishes to pickup and leave America for some fuggin 3rd world country like India. They can stay in India and as well sell only their products to the peoples of India.. Same goes with Dell going to China and all the other hightech companies leaving America. Once they leave American soil, they can't sell their products to Americans.. They have to sell to the indigenous population of which they relocated to.

You guys are saying Boycott IBM???
Soon .. will you be boycotting all the American companies?
Yes, i know it does hurt a lot of Americans. One of my relatives lost his job too in IBM. It is sad. But dont blame IBM, nor India. If the jobs didnt outsource.. we wouldnt have so many cheap and much better electronic products and clothes we are buying. Jobs outsource, but standard of living is not affected that much. I am not at all against this.
Good luck IBM and good luck India.
Also for all those people commenting here.. and blaming .. IF you were the CEO's .. I am pretty sure you would do that for the benefit of your company. Dont even think that you arent that selfish.

God I love living in Canda. I just got hired by IBM in Montreal, QC as a junior software developer. Thankfully the account I'll be working on is in french, so they can't really outsource this work.

Also, it's strange to hear that IBM is outsourcing, since a large part of IBMs business involves being the company that other companies outsource their IT to. They are probably talking more about their hardware jobs than anything else (Which only makes up about 40% of their business)

Anyhow, it's sad, but it happens. Vive le Canada.