IBM workers face up to corporate attack

Two IBM Japan employees had overtly been pressured to leave the company in repeated interviews with management before they knocked at the door of a labor union and decided to challenge the computer giant.

Akahata of August 14 reported on 26-year-old Ito Toru and 38-year-old Aida Taro, whose job performance had been rated C. (These names are not real.)

IBM Japan's performance-based rating system is used to cut salaries or even sack workers as part of its cost-cutting strategy.

Employees are rated on a scale of A (excellent), B (able), C (falling short of some requirements) and D (inadequate).

Ito and Aida had asked management why they were rated C, but in vain.

Wishing to know what to do with their problem, they plucked up the courage to ask for advice from the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers' Union (JMIU) IBM Japan Branch, which they had so far joined. At the union they learned that coercing workers into voluntary retirement is illegal! They didn't hesitate to join the union, to which 60 other employees already belonged.

As soon as they notified the company of their union membership, the bosses stopped interviewing them, as if the incident had never taken place.

An inner document of the company which the union obtained clearly states that IBM Japan will further promote the performance-oriented culture and recommend early retirement for poor-performance workers and anyone above 50 years old except for A-rated workers.

The two resolved to stand up against the unreasonable retirement coercion. Ito said, "I was like a floating boat in the dark. For me, the union was the same as a lighthouse." Aida said, "I want to appeal to other workers who do not know about the union yet." (end)