IBM Australia workers vote to strike

Workers at IBM's Flightdeck in Baulkham hills have voted to strike for better pay and conditions, according to the Australian Services Union, which counted the vote today.

A section of under 100 employees working at the organisation's "Flightdeck" at Baulkham Hills wanted a collective agreement granting them better pay and conditions, and had decided to vote on a strike after IBM failed to address employee concerns.

The ballot opened two weeks ago and closed today, with the votes being counted at 11:00am.

An organiser from the Australian Services Union presiding over the count told ZDNet.com.au that 45 workers voted on the ballot, which he said was well over the number of returned ballots necessary for the vote to stand.

There were nine yes or no questions on the ballot form, which asked if the employees were prepared to go through with forms of industrial action. Each question received a majority yes vote.

The actions which were put to vote and their tallies were:

1. An unlimited number of bans on overtime: 43 yes, 2 no
2. An unlimited number of four-hour stop work meetings: 44 yes, 1 no
3. Rolling four-hour stop work meetings over an unlimited number of 48-hour periods: 45 yes, 0 no
4. An unlimited number of stoppages of work for the duration of a single shift: 43 yes, 1 no, 1 informal
5. Rolling stoppages of work for the duration of the shift over an unlimited number of week-long periods: 45 yes, 0 no
6. An unlimited number of 24-hour stoppages: 43 yes, 2 no
7. An unlimited number of 48-hour stoppages: 40 yes, 5 no
8. An unlimited number of 72-hour stoppages: 40 yes, 5 no
9. An indefinite stoppage of work: 39 yes, 6 no

The organiser said the results meant the ballot for the strike had been won, and it was now up to the union members as to which actions were taken.

The aim of the strike is to achieve rights for all Flightdeck employees including regular pay rises, pay equity, travel allowance, fair redundancy and retrenchment provisions, paid shift handover periods, fair access to leave entitlements and time off in lieu, shift penalties and the option to work from home.

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Well done! IT Corps are evil -- 29/08/08

Excellent result - now lets see if the EDS employees elect to stand up for their rights as well.

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Next Step Anonymous -- 29/08/08 (in reply to #320110868)

This will just speed up the companies move to take this service offshore.

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I Don't Think so Anonymous -- 29/08/08 (in reply to #320110883)

"This will just speed up the companies move to take this service offshore"

This is a weak and "I'm already beaten" attitude. Not really an option, when confidential Australian Financial and Government data needs to be cared for by Australians, working in Australia. And I believe thats re-inforced by Federal Govt. law.
A multi-national like big blue must abide by the laws of the country it is serving.
And seriously, real-time operations support in another time-zone or country? You must be kidding.
So my praise to the 45 who contributed to the secret ballot.

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Nah. He is right. Anonymous -- 02/09/08 (in reply to #320110889)

Even companies such as MYOB which suppose to handle very Australian specific data are considering cutting their staffs and outsourcing.
One of the main reasons is that, while we are thinking that the paid was unfair, they think they have paid you too much. Which in fact, they did. It's just that we didn't notice because more than 40% of all the money will be paid straight to the Government, Fund, Super etc.

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Benn There Seen That Anonymous -- 29/08/08

I work for IBM and have seen the results from when employees do not agree with policies,or when employees take action against the company.
IBM management gets the drift and instead of working with the employees to come to a good resolution they make arrangements to outsource.
IBM stinks in the way it works and I pitty the people that work the flight deck as this action taken may have implications in their future employment. IBM tends to have project codes that IBM execs know and when the action is taken i.e. outsourcing it is known to all the name of preject code name. Very very dissapointing.
I wish the guys of the flight deck good luck and good stuff for taking the action as it gives other teams/departments a little courage to take some similar actions.
It is all nice and dandy for managers to be in place and change the world and when it gets tough they **** off elsewhere and screw up the next department.
IBM has done major damage to its internal structure and customers are starting to feel it. IBM is not the same place as 5 years ago. In honesty it has moved backwards allowing the competitors to take more chunks out of IBMs space.
I hope the shareholders and execs feel the pinch and stop being so greedy screwing this company to the ground.

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Great to See Anonymous -- 29/08/08

Good on the workers at IBM! Sounds like they are standing up for the basic right to negotiate their employment rights. Winning means IBM has to treat them with respect and value them enough to agree to negotiate in good faith. This is something worth fighting for! Winning this respect is more important than any payrise they can offer.

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IBM Anonymous -- 02/09/08

I too worked at IBM and many other global coporates, the thing is striking makes NO difference at all if it be emergency workers, builders, teachers what ever.

As once these execs make up there mind to take a certain course of action there going to stick to it.

We all know in the real world its the management that should be taking the pay cuts but that wont happen.

My advice is if your not happy then find another job that does make you happy. The less people that want to do that job the more management will realise why ?

All big companies are the same only think of the bottom line and the shareholder.

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Exactly Anonymous -- 02/09/08 (in reply to #320111080)

Exactly, unfortunately, my friend.

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IBM - not employer of choice Anonymous -- 03/09/08

There is a high percentage of staff at IBM that were acquired in outsourcing contracts. These staff are among the biggest detractors of IBM due to the lies that were told before moving accross. Pay rises, conditions, work location, redundancy agreements are all changed at IBM's descretion, without consultation. There are employees that have not received pay rises for many years, all at a time when IBM has been making record profit and increasing workload for those left behind in their recent offshoring debacles (yes, it is not working). It is time for a change at IBM - time to live up to your own hype and propaganda - employer of choice - NOT.

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