IBM and unions

In 1999, employees of IBM in Europe formed a European Works Council.[2][3] In 2011, the global union federations UNI Global Union and International Metalworker's Federation[note 1] formed the "IBM Global Union Alliance" to coordinate labor activities across the globe among its affiliate unions.[5][6]

In 2002, after IBM Global Services Australia and Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) failed to negotiate a common enterprise agreement for all 3,500 employees working on the Telstra contract (about half were original Telstra employees covered by a different agreement), CPSU organized two 48 hour strike actions.[7][8]

In April 2010 the Fair Work Australia tribunal ordered IBM Australia to bargain with the Australian Service Union (ASU) representing employees in Baulkham Hills, Sydney in a mass layoff proceeding. IBM appealed unsuccessfully, claiming that ASU was ineligible to represent these employees.[9] 80 employees accepted collectively negotiated contracts concerning severance packages and sick leave in case of future layoffs.[10][11]

Over 1,000 workers at an IBM factory in Shenzhen went on a wildcat strike in March 2014, after management announced the sale of the factory to Lenovo. The strike was part of a larger trend of labor militancy in the Guangdong province. Workers demanded higher severance packages if they left and higher salaries if they transferred to Lenovo.[12]

IBM Germany has a Group Works Council, which concluded a central works agreement on the internal usage of artificial intelligence in the workplace.[13]

The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) has the principle of one trade union for each company, but in practice, its trade union affiliates, ver.di (including its predecessors)[note 2] and IG Metall have been competing since the early 1990s. They compete for union members, seats on the Works Councils with their respective union members and bargaining coverage via collective agreements.[15]^: 323 In December 2001, ver.di and IG Metall agreed to form a joint collective bargaining committee with IBM Germany to resolve their internal union competition.[16]

In the absence of regional collective agreements or high union-density, Works Councils fill a bargaining gap on certain topics like working time through works agreements. Company collective agreements would serve as a middle ground between trade union regional collective bargaining and the formally regulated Works Council framework.[17]^{: 181–182}

In 1996, the union density at IBM Germany was less than 10% including both trade unions IG Metall and German Salaried Employees' Union (DAG)[note 2], yet IBM was a member of the Metal Employer Association ("Gesamtmetall") who ratified a regional collective agreement with IG Metall, including the 35-hour workweek. In 1994, after corporate restructuring, five non-manufacturing subsidiaries of IBM Germany were created, none of which joined Gesamtmetall, effectively voiding the regional collective agreement. Instead, they ratified company collective agreements with DAG, which deviated to a longer 38-hour work week.[17]^: 175

A still from the Second Life virtual strike with caption "Solidarity with IBM workers"

In 2007, the Italian trade union, "RSU IBM Vimercate" represented 9,000 IBM workers.[18] They organized a virtual strike inside Second Life, a simulation used internally by IBM for its employees. Between 500 and 1500 real-life IBM employees across the globe signed up to disrupt IBM virtual facilities in solidarity with the Italian trade union's collective agreement negotiations. One of the issues was IBM's cancellation of a performance bonus worth $1000 for each employee. The virtual strike was supported by UNI Global Union.[19]

In August 1970, the IBM Black Workers Alliance (BWA) was formed.[20] It was the first high-tech movement for under represented minorities, to protest lack of equal pay and promote opportunities for young, poor communities.[21] Between 1978 and 1980 its membership grew five-fold to 1,700 people. IBM responded by firing 4 of the top 8 BWA officers.[22] BWA existed until the early 1990s and had chapters in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Hudson Valley, New York City, and Washington DC. They were not a union, nor trying to form one,[20] but one member, Marceline Donaldson started organizing with the all Black Pullman Porters Union until she left IBM in 1979. In 1980, Donaldson filed a complaint with the NLRB and the EEOC alleging unfair labor practices and retaliation against Black employees joining the BWA chapter in Cincinnati.[23][24]

In the 1970s, Lee Conrad founded the IBM Workers United (IBMWU) in Endicott, NY, an independent grassroots union. It had an underground newsletter called "Resistor",[1]^: 60 which highlighted a number of issues, including IBM's sale of computers to apartheid South Africa, comparing them to IBM's sale of computers to the Nazis.[25] In the 1970s, members of IBMWU distributed fliers at an IBM shareholder meeting titled "Would IBM have Sold Computers to Hitler?" protesting IBM's trade deals with apartheid South Africa.[26]

In 1999, IBMWU affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), rebranded itself as Alliance@IBM under CWA Local 1701,[27] with Conrad as its lead coordinator.[26][28] In 2016, Alliance@IBM shut down, citing low membership, outsourcing and union busting.[29]

• IBM European Works Council database
• IBM ver.di union portal