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IBM Will Move Some Work To Its Poughkeepsie Site

IBM is moving some of its product manufacturing from Rochester, Minnesota, to Poughkeepsie, New York, as well as to Mexico. Company officials are being tight-lipped about what this means in terms of jobs, but some onlookers in the Hudson Valley see a boost to the local economy.

Here’s IBM spokesman Scott Cook.

Essentially, Poughkeepsie will gain the production work of refurbishing a line of servers. In 2010, IBM announced the opening of a $30 million manufacturing facility at its Poughkeepsie site to produce the next generation of System z mainframes and high-end Power Systems servers, which are used by many companies worldwide. So IBM’s Poughkeepsie location already manufactures the types of servers it will now be charged with refurbishing.

As to how many jobs the move could create in Poughkeepsie, and whether staff in Rochester, Minnesota would be offered job transfers to Poughkeepsie, Cook says:

He says the transfer of product manufacturing will begin later this year to be completed by mid-2014, and came about after evaluating IBM operations and ensuring the company’s competitiveness in the global market.

Dr. Christy Huebner Caridi sees two possible outcomes from the move to Poughkeepsie.

She’s the Director of the Bureau of Economic Research at Marist College’s School of Management, which is down the road from IBM’s Poughkeepsie location.

Democratic State Senator Terry Gipson, whose 41st district includes Poughkeepsie, welcomes the news.

IBM Spokesman Scott Cook says Rochester, Minnesota will continue to be a strategic location for hardware, software, and services.

Meanwhile, The Alliance@IBM, Communications Workers of America, is encouraging all Rochester, Minnesota IBM employees and IBM USA employees to voice their displeasure with moving hundreds of manufacturing jobs to Mexico. They say they will help set up picket lines in Rochester with IBM employees and other allies.

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