There was a time when IBMers counted themselves as a cut above the riff-raff, and valued their dignity and the impression they made on the world – but no more, at least not in France, where they have descended to the level of agricultural peasants and rude mechanicals: according to Dow Jones & Co, hundreds of IBM France SA employees blocked streets near the company’s Paris headquarters and demonstrated in provincial cities to protest the company’s plans to cut 3,000 jobs; at least 400 employees blocked traffic for three hours in central Paris on Thursday, and factory workers staged a 90-minute strike.
