International Business Machines Corp. , the world's largest computer maker, cut about 2,000 jobs from its services division on Wednesday, a union spokesman said on Thursday.
Employees reported receiving paperwork that put the total cuts in services at 2,000 -- 10 times the 200 cuts that had been estimated by a representative of a union seeking to organize IBM workers.
Armonk, New York-based IBM confirmed that it had made cuts in the division, which in 2001 was IBM's fastest growing division, but declined to comment on the number. The company said employees have 30 days to find a new job within IBM.
IBM's global services division employs more than 150,000 people -- almost half of IBM's total 318,000 employees -- putting the latest cuts at about 1.3 percent of the services group and less than 1 percent of the company overall.
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