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posted by mrpg on Friday December 30 2016, @05:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the objection-de-conscience dept.

Original URL: The Register

IBM staff have petitioned the company to – among other things – express concern that "IBM CEO Ginni Rometty's open letter to President-elect Donald Trump does not affirm IBMers' core values of diversity, inclusiveness, and ethical business conduct."

The petition's authors respect Rometty's "willingness to engage in constructive dialogue with the president-elect" but argue IBM's culture is essential "to our transformation underpinned by cloud and cognitive initiatives."

[...] There's also a call to "Respect our right to refuse participation in any U.S. contracts that violate constitutional and civil liberties" which sounds like an option to opt out of working on Trump's planned register of Muslims. Another demand wants IBM to "Prohibit perceived influence-peddling of elected officials by restricting IBM and its employees from using any Trump owned or Trump branded properties for business purposes, in accordance with the IBM Business Conduct Guidelines."

In part the petition reads:

We have a moral and business imperative to uphold the pillars of a free society by declining any projects which undermine liberty, such as surveillance tools threatening freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

[...] Taking a conservative approach has grave implications. Our own founder's experience and the rest of history teach us that accommodating those who unleash forces of aggressive nationalism, bigotry, racism, fear, and exclusion inevitably yields devastating outcomes for millions of innocents.

Full text: IBMers to CEO Ginni Rometty: Affirm IBM values!


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Friday December 30 2016, @02:32PM

    by looorg (578) on Friday December 30 2016, @02:32PM (#447432)

    If working for IBM is so horrible they should just quit. I'm sure it will look great on their CV: Left IBM for moral reasons - refused and didn't want to work on government projects. I'm sure their potential future employers will just line up to hire them after that.

    We have a moral and business imperative to uphold the pillars of a free society by declining any projects which undermine liberty, such as surveillance tools threatening freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

    This whole sentence is just one giant get out of work free card. IBM would have to get out of the entire government support business since more or less any work can be filed away under this definitions. I don't see me, or anyone else, getting away with a similar demand every time anyone I didn't want in government wins an election. Sorry can't work on any of this social-democracy-commie-liberal-hippie-project since I find it morally and politically objectionable. I'd be fired, and they should be to. If they want to cry about politics they can do it in their own spare time, ie the other 16h a day or whatever is left after work.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday December 30 2016, @04:49PM

    by jmorris (4844) on Friday December 30 2016, @04:49PM (#447486)

    This whole sentence is just one giant get out of work free card.

    Only if you attempt to parse out an actual meaning in English from the insane gibberings of a Prog. They aren't speaking English though, they use NewSpeak. It mostly just translates to virtue signaling but carries an echo of the broader Narrative of generally delegitimizing Trump. Yea, they think they still have the moral authority for it. But they are still stuck in the denial phase, just wait until they get to anger.

    The practical upshot is IBM and everyone else is now on notice that any new government contracts carries the risk of wildcat labor action and internal sabotage. Trump's most rational response would be to quietly inform the CEO of IBM that everybody who signed such a stupid petition needs to be fired for cause before they can expect to win any such contract because we ain't got time to play with retards; and the the Department of Labor is now one that understands the needs of business to have workers who actually work. Time now to clean out the useless and get to the winning.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @12:26AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @12:26AM (#447668)

      It's exactly what D Trump needs to do to make America great again. Reagan fired the air traffic controllers and planes kept on flying, IBM can fire these liberal retards for cause and start making some serious profits for shareholders.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @01:48AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @01:48AM (#447717)

        Trump should land his 757 in front of this IBM demonstration, walk in front and point his finger and say "You're fired. You're fired. Get out. You're fired".

  • (Score: 2) by Common Joe on Saturday December 31 2016, @07:58AM

    by Common Joe (33) <{common.joe.0101} {at} {gmail.com}> on Saturday December 31 2016, @07:58AM (#447793) Journal

    If working for IBM is so horrible they should just quit. I'm sure it will look great on their CV: Left IBM for moral reasons - refused and didn't want to work on government projects. I'm sure their potential future employers will just line up to hire them after that.

    Replace "IBM" with "NSA". Replace it with Obama. Replace it with something else that is morally repugnant to you.

    What's interesting to me isn't the "Trump" part. It's that your comment was rated +5, but even though I found your comment a bit empty. Many IT people tend to do a lot of introspection and moral analysis of what they do. I like IT people who put morals before IT -- even if I disagree with that person's conclusion.

    But you're right. You, me, and most other people aren't going to get away with this. We'd lose our jobs. Which implies something else very interesting to think about. In our world today, we must do things that we find morally repugnant to put food on our table. And that is why large corporations can treat the IT employees so badly -- the ones who didn't like what was going on did quit. They let their morality get the in the way of putting food on the table. I have made several choices in my life where I chose morality over money. I am certainly paying for those choices.