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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: 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.

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  • (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".