IBM to lay off 500 workers in Argentina

A union for workers at IBM Argentina says the company has initiated a plan to lay off 500 workers in the next few months. 

Asked for comment Wednesday, the company sent a statement to The Associated Press saying only that ``change is constant in the technology industry.'' 

The union said IBM's campus of 9,000 workers in suburban Buenos Aires would be reduced by more than 5 percent under a plan seeking to avoid losses for the subsidiary. 
The Ecolatina consulting firm says Argentine labor costs have more than quintupled since 2002, including a 17 per cent hike in the last year.