IBM Workers Protest CEO’s Collaboration With Trump

MADSA member and 10-year IBM employee Daniel Hanley has spearheaded a petition campaign to demand that IBM CEO Ginni Rometty distance herself and the corporation from the Trump administration (and improve certain employee benefits and working conditions). Rometty joined the president’s economic council after sending him a letter congratulating him on his election victory and offering to help carry out his programs. This contradicts the corporation’s declared values of diversity and tolerance, according to the IBM workers who delivered their petition to the Atlanta headquarters Monday and to the New York City headquarters on Tuesday, with the names of more than 1,000 of their fellow employees.

Hanley, joined by others at all levels of the company, urged that IBM workers support “democracy in the workplace, and resist any collaboration between our CEO and Trump that results in civil liberties violations impacting Muslims, immigrants, people of color, trans people, and other marginalized groups.” In Atlanta, Asma Elhuni of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Jovan Julien of Project South spoke for some of the groups potentially affected by IBM’s actions, and 10 MADSA members attended the event. (Note: IBM notoriously provided equipment to the German Nazis that helped them create a registry of Jews to be targeted by the Holocaust. Trump during his campaign called for a registry of Muslims in America.) For videos of the petition delivery events, see MADSA’s Facebook page. Photo: Reid Freeman Jenkins