here's the 1-800 number also (to get a contact for HR):

1-800-IBM-4YOU

"identify potential opportunities in growth market and facilitate consideration by hiring managers in those market"

BINGO!

Here's how to contact them:

And tell them what? The workers are getting fired anyway; I'm not sure how this proposal makes anybody significantly worse off.

I would write to them saying you don't agree with firing someone, only to tell them "here's your old job back IN INDIA!" if you want to pack up your whole life and go chase it down. In a foreign country with none of the similar infrastructure you're used to here if, you know, you get laid off again and can't come home.

If you don't care, don't bother - to me, this is insane and wrong. It goes beyond the pale, so I posted contact information for the company doing it.

Americans working at slave wages in developing countries. Upper management creems its jeans.

Wasn't this a Simpsons episode?

It's like the old joke "Join the Army, meet interesting people, kill them!", except you don't get a rifle.

Used to work with a lovely Indian woman. She and her husband moved back 'home' after the birth of her first child. They lasted six months before returning to the States and are now working on citizenship.

If Indians don't want to live in India why would Americans?

P.S. I wish we could hire her back!

The basic idea here is not new for IBM. In the summer of 2001, IBM offered the consultancy where I worked a fat contract to move all 6 of us consultants and any admin staff permanently to the Phillipines with incentives like paid travel back to the US for vacations and such. The owner turned it down, and after 9/11, the company collapsed in February.

Before slamming IBM, I would like to hear the exact terms of this deal rather than a bunch of spin by a not-quite-union rep. At one time, I would have jumped at the chance to work in many of the countries listed in the article, layoffs or not.

At one time, I would have jumped at the chance to work in many of the countries listed in the article, layoffs or not.

Agreed. I'd way rather relocate than be unemployed. I'd have appreciated the offer too; since being laid off, I've looked everywhere for jobs like the one I had, to no avail. If I could have remained employed and moved abroad, I'd be loads better off than I am now. I'm a little jealous of these IBM employees.

Anecdotal, I know someone laid off this week from IBM after 30 years there. 6 months pay, 1 year of health insurance. No mention of the option to work abroad were the terms.

I can't understand the outrage here. Yeah, I understand the adding insult to injury thing, but at worst, these employees are no worse off than they would have been if they had been laid off in a traditional way.