Here is the epitome of labor arbitrage and the obvious inhuman view IBM has on it's employees.

IBM is telling soon to be fired U.S. and Canadian workers they can have a job, but only if they move to India or China and work for Indian and Chinese wages. (It is yet to be seen what India and China have to say about this with foreigners coming in and taking jobs!).

Information Week has the details:

The climate is warm, there's no shortage of exotic food, and the cost of living is rock bottom. That's IBM's pitch to the laid-off American workers it's offering to place in India. The catch: Wages in the country are pennies-on-the-dollar compared to U.S. salaries.

Under a program called Project Match, IBM will help workers laid off from domestic sites obtain travel and visa assistance for countries in which Big Blue has openings. Mostly that's developing markets like India, China, and Brazil.

"IBM has established Project Match to help you locate potential job opportunities in growth markets where your skills are in demand," IBM says in an internal notice on the initiative. "Should you accept a position in one of these countries, IBM offers financial assistance to offset moving costs, provides immigration support, such as visa assistance, and other support to help ease the transition of an international move."

The document states that the program is limited to "satisfactory performers who have been notified of separation from IBM U.S. or Canada and are willing to work on local terms and conditions." The latter indicates that workers will be paid according to prevailing norms in the countries to which they relocate. In many cases, that could be substantially less than what they earned in North America.

IBM has laid off more than 4,000 workers in the United States since the beginning of January, according to an employee group. The company has confirmed layoffs but won't comment on specific numbers.

Can you imagine this? Rip your kids out of school, abandon your relatives, leave your entire country....just to be able to eat? By the way, you know that retirement you've been saving for or that U.S. debt you have? Oh no problem? We're going to pay you pennies on the dollar and I guess your mortgage, MasterCard and Visa will just have to understand. Sorry you will later not be able to afford to retire in your own country.

This is the ultimate example of just how IBM looks at it's labor force. Tt's quite frightening for IBM should actually need that little minor detail called talent and skills! Ah, but no, they look at workers simply as an expense and are telling loyal employees that they should work for 3rd world wages and leave their entire cultural identity and home.

Do Professionals, especially technical professionals need to organize as a labor force? It certainly appears so!