IBM Employees Launch Petition Protesting Cooperation with Donald Trump

originally posted by: Bluntone22

originally posted by: introvert

originally posted by: eluryh22

originally posted by: introvert

originally posted by: eluryh22
a reply to: eisegesis

Meh. If I were running a company and I had employees that refused to perform their legal duties.... I'd replace them. It's really that simple.

What duties are they legally obligated to perform?

I don't know. You'd have to ask the employees that are refusing to do something it seems they haven't been asked to do.

That would be grounds for termination through insubordination, but it has nothing to do with legal obligation.

I think he was trying to say that they can't refuse to do a job that is not breaking a law without the risk of being terminated.

Perhaps that's what he meant and it would be true.

originally posted by: pteridine
a reply to: eisegesis

apparently they do not want Government contracts.

Different people running the show during a different time.... but they didn't always mind working on government contracts.

Again, different people and a different time.

So 50 people are over reacting and refusing to perform a task they were not asked to preform? – you have to love social media; it gives a voice to even the most mediocre among us.

It's a shame the IBM staff didn't have a similar political conscience when they supplied the Nazi party with their census machines in the 1930''s.

originally posted by: DanDanDat
So 50 people are over reacting and refusing to perform a task they were not asked to preform? – you have to love social media; it gives a voice to even the most mediocre among us.

Certain employees started to revolt after IBM CEO Ginny Rometty sent a personal letter to Trump offering the company's support. The services are listed below...

In a letter obtained by CNBC, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty personally congratulated the president-elect and stated, “I know that you are committed to help America’s economy grow in ways that are good for all of its people.” She then laid out six separate ways in which IBM’s business could dovetail with Trump’s national agenda — including information services available to the most erratic, dangerous presidency in American history. Those services included a “cognitive computing system” for the Department of Veterans Affairs, artificial intelligence for infrastructure, and “data analytics, data center consolidation, and the use of cloud technologies” to cut government costs.

After Wood decided to leave the company, she created this petition and the troops have been lining up slowly. Many in protest don't want to be the first or the last and once a leader arises, they're a lot easier to get behind.

...the IBM petition is perhaps the first of its kind, a rare instance of tech employees directly confronting their management in an industry where organized labor is unheard of. This may have something to do with the influence of former IBM employee Elizabeth Wood, who publicly quit the company shortly after reading Rometty’s letter.

These things have a tendency to get the ball rolling and I wouldn't be surprised if an internal company run from outside of the US ends up taking the job. Has anyone heard yet of any companies willing to create and manage a Muslim registry?

In response to questions from BuzzFeed News, Google, Apple, and Uber clarified their positions on President-elect Donald Trump’s comments about a possible Muslim registry. “In relation to the hypothetical of whether we would ever help build a ‘muslim registry’ - we haven’t been asked, of course we wouldn’t do this and we are glad - from all that we’ve read - that the proposal doesn’t seem to be on the table,” a spokesperson for Google told BuzzFeed News in an email message.

Link

This could backfire in a big way for IBM.

Imagine for a minute that the president of the US looks at IBM and says that perhaps IBM is a security risk because some of the employees won't work with him. Perhaps they would work to undermine any business the company is doing with the government... The logical conclusion would be to not offer work to IBM in the future.

Just my opinon

a reply to: introvert

Their job. If you do not like it go work somewhere else. If an employee in 08 said he would not work on something Obama suggested he would be labeled racist. These guys are labeled heroes for what they stand up for?

In business you never talk politics or religion.

a reply to: matafuchs

Their job. If you do not like it go work somewhere else.

That is not the same as being legally obligated.

If an employee in 08 said he would not work on something Obama suggested he would be labeled racist.

I cannot comment on dramatic hyperbole.

These guys are labeled heroes for what they stand up for?

I wouldn't say that.

I have someone I grew up with who is a VP at IBM. She seems to have a talk all day go to meetings job that really pays great. travels the world getting lucky.

a reply to: eisegesis

IBM had no problem when they did this to the jews in Germany. Didn't seem to hurt their rep to bad huh? They're still around to tell the story.

Is Trump asking for this? Or is someone offering it to him and the media is spinning it as "what will Trump do"? Cuz that is pretty stupid.

originally posted by: eisegesis

originally posted by: DanDanDat
So 50 people are over reacting and refusing to perform a task they were not asked to preform? – you have to love social media; it gives a voice to even the most mediocre among us.

Certain employees started to revolt after IBM CEO Ginny Rometty sent a personal letter to Trump offering the company's support. The services are listed below...

In a letter obtained by CNBC, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty personally congratulated the president-elect and stated, “I know that you are committed to help America’s economy grow in ways that are good for all of its people.” She then laid out six separate ways in which IBM’s business could dovetail with Trump’s national agenda — including information services available to the most erratic, dangerous presidency in American history. Those services included a “cognitive computing system” for the Department of Veterans Affairs, artificial intelligence for infrastructure, and “data analytics, data center consolidation, and the use of cloud technologies” to cut government costs.

After Wood decided to leave the company, she created this petition and the troops have been lining up slowly. Many in protest don't want to be the first or the last and once a leader arises, they're a lot easier to get behind.

...the IBM petition is perhaps the first of its kind, a rare instance of tech employees directly confronting their management in an industry where organized labor is unheard of. This may have something to do with the influence of former IBM employee Elizabeth Wood, who publicly quit the company shortly after reading Rometty’s letter.

These things have a tendency to get the ball rolling and I wouldn't be surprised if an internal company run from outside of the US ends up taking the job. Has anyone heard yet of any companies willing to create and manage a Muslim registry?

In response to questions from BuzzFeed News, Google, Apple, and Uber clarified their positions on President-elect Donald Trump’s comments about a possible Muslim registry. “In relation to the hypothetical of whether we would ever help build a ‘muslim registry’ - we haven’t been asked, of course we wouldn’t do this and we are glad - from all that we’ve read - that the proposal doesn’t seem to be on the table,” a spokesperson for Google told BuzzFeed News in an email message.

Link

i see, so Trump didn't ask for this and the media is just creating another # storm for liberals to cry about. Got it. Thanks.

originally posted by: introvert
a reply to: matafuchs

Their job. If you do not like it go work somewhere else.

That is not the same as being legally obligated.

If an employee in 08 said he would not work on something Obama suggested he would be labeled racist.

I cannot comment on dramatic hyperbole.

These guys are labeled heroes for what they stand up for?

I wouldn't say that.

Pretty sure contracts are legal instruments and breach of contract is unlawful, thus contractual obligations are legal obligations.

The rabbit hole runs deep. The billion dollar companies are hiding sh"t is my guess.

Wasn't IBM one of the Companies in league with Nazis in its early beginning ..WW 2?

originally posted by: Cobaltic1978
It's a shame the IBM staff didn't have a similar political conscience when they supplied the Nazi party with their census machines in the 1930''s.

Looks like they're learning from their mistakes.

originally posted by: underwerks

originally posted by: Cobaltic1978
It's a shame the IBM staff didn't have a similar political conscience when they supplied the Nazi party with their census machines in the 1930''s.

Looks like they're learning from their mistakes.

Ha ha, maybe.

Somehow, I can't see Trump becoming the next Adolf Hitler, but you never know.

Ha...what a non-story. So to get this straight, IBM offers support to the Trump administration and government from a tech perspective. That support letter is taken out of context by an employee that doesn't like Trump so she quits. She then starts a petition and decides in her obfuscated view that the letter meant that they were offering to build a Muslim database for him for which he never asked in the first place? And now IBM'ers are jumping on the wagon backing this petition up? WTF? How unintelligent are these people that they can't see through what lies they are being fed? Hopefully IBM DOES get rid of them and replaces them with people that can read and have a brain...might even help IBM come back from the craphole they have gone down in recent years. Of course they offered to help in a tech way.....they need it bad. They are barely even a hardware company any more. The number of jobs they have cut in the last 10 years is insane.

Am I living in some alternate reality here? The idiotic stories I have seen lately give me little hope for the left and the MSM. I can't believe the spin everyone involved in this story is trying to sell here. I am truly at a loss for words.

a reply to: eisegesis

Of course, I'd be willing to bet that they'd be all over a database to categorize and list gun owners.... Just saying...

Jaden

originally posted by: matafuchs
a reply to: introvert
In business you never talk politics or religion.

what if talked included making a list of specific people with specific religions or specific nationality as to be monitored as other people see fit?

originally posted by: odzeandennz

originally posted by: matafuchs
a reply to: introvert
In business you never talk politics or religion.

what if talked included making a list of specific people with specific religions or specific nationality as to be monitored as other people see fit?

Only in this case it didn't and there were no talks, just a letter from IBM stating that they wanted to work with the new administration....

Somehow someone that worked there decided it meant a Muslim database was offered and ran with it.....logic does not abound in either the woman who started the petition or the author of the story.

a reply to: odzeandennz

No, I meant at work you do not talk politics or religion. It can lead to disagreements in the workplace or with vendors or clients.

You do your job. If you have a conflict you either work through it or you get another job. Transfer.