In Reply to: Activism and this and other fora posted by Joe76 on 28 March 2006 at 09:17:29:
Joe, great post I agree with everything you say. I'm genuinely sorry for the way the thread went.
It seems to me that if the outcome desired is IBM change to pension schemes rather than simply the therapeutic value of making lots of noise, we have to face some of the realities.
I guess the first is that pensioners or ex-employees have no leverage at all and I don’t believe they ever will do – except through a tortuous process of changing the law to include implied promsies. This isn’t going to happen.
Secondly our case in terms of gaining support from “society” isn’t as compelling as say those that have lost all of their pensions – and where is the pressure on the government to “do the right thing” in their case or the companies that reorganised having shafted them.
This leads me to the conclusion that there is probably only one key that has any real chance at all. And that is if people like Gary, use his union position to put together a much more closely linked international association of IBM employees who work in unison. Once IBM can see that its employees are talking to IBM from all countries together - that would represent pressure that they MAY listen to. My suggestion would be that if that type of association, supported by transferees and deferrals, were to approach IBM firstly on a “we want to work with you in a constructive way to produce a solution to this that is acceptable to all of us”, then you have justifaction for more direct action if IBM proves to be uncooperative.
In this age of fast communications, getting together these groups shouldn’t be difficult.
GG