Nokia settles with German unions for $314M

Nokia's decision to close that factory in Bochum, Germany and move its operations to a cheaper site in Romania might lower costs in the long run, but for now things seem decidedly in red: Nokia and the German unions who represented the 2,000 laid-off workers at the plant have agreed to a €200M ($314M) settlement, which will probably end the demonstrations and calls for boycotts that have been going on. Of course, that's on top of the $92M (plus another $6.2M) the German government wants back in grants and tax breaks for subsidizing the plant, but what's another hundred mil between friends?

[Via Textually.org; image courtesy of Reuters]

[Lowest Ranked @ Apr 8th 2008 5:11PM]

Look, not even Acerguy would touch this article.

[phanbouy @ Apr 8th 2008 5:15PM]

cue Mark to say "whatever".

[Anonymoose @ Apr 8th 2008 5:48PM]

yeah, i've been seeing him say that. who got him all butt hurt? it was you, wasn't it phan?

[phanbouy @ Apr 8th 2008 5:50PM]

mighta been. i did call him a litany of suckitude and then engadget nuked his post. i'd be a bitter 12 year old as well

[Anonymoose @ Apr 8th 2008 5:55PM]

dude. no way he knows what litany means. which might explain his anger. but it certainly doesn't explain his rashes. which also might explain his anger. but it certainly doesn't explain his bedwetting. this could go on for a while.

[Lowest Ranked @ Apr 8th 2008 6:44PM]

I think the fact that he is butt-hurt would explain his rashes...

Either that or his crabs..

[Mark @ Apr 8th 2008 8:00PM]

whatever?

[John @ Apr 8th 2008 5:15PM]

What's another hundred mil between friends?
Just about 100,000,000.

[Ken @ Apr 8th 2008 5:21PM]

that's 157,000 Euro each!!!

[Ken @ Apr 8th 2008 5:22PM]

I mean 157,000 dollars

[LJKelley @ Apr 8th 2008 6:54PM]

This kinda proves Nokia was in the wrong and will probably eventually settle with Germany as well.

I know some of you accused Germany of being heavy handed but its quite obvious that Nokia had lived up to is contracts with either Germany or the German Unions. Shame on you Nokia.

[ynohtna @ Apr 8th 2008 7:03PM]

More likely the other way around, where Germany and it's unions didn't live up to Nokia's expectation. You don't give a company tax breaks if you don't want them to operate there. You give the tax breaks cause you're trying to lure them.

Nokia bit and gave them a chance only to find that it wasn't working out for them. They paid out to reduce that flack and hopefully make everyone as happy as possible, given the situation.

The higher union costs is what screws everyone over. Sure people have to make a living but Nokia and their shareholders aren't non-profit organizations either.

[me @ Apr 8th 2008 9:12PM]

heh that's funny. we pay CEOs millions to run companies into the ground (Bear Stearns, Enron, anyone?) and the minute some blue collar schmucks organize in order to make a decent living, somebody screams, "greedy unions!"

[Franco @ Apr 9th 2008 1:11AM]

Germany. say good bye to nokia for good since I don't think they will ever come back even if you give them more money next time. lol

[Otto @ Apr 9th 2008 3:36AM]

200 Mill for 2000 laid off workers??? Great, I'd be volunteering to be made redundant, grab my $100k and run.

Otto
www.dragonlasers.com

[mymaclife @ Apr 9th 2008 5:51AM]

Would you go into a German factory with a padlock on it? Will history teach them nothing?

[Andy @ Apr 9th 2008 5:54AM]

It's very much a case of one set of rules for us and one for them with these guys. When German companies operating in different countries want to get rid of people, they do it ruthlessly but their own countrymen are always the last to go. I speak from personal and bitter experience.

Nokia may not be staffed by genius management, but I would be surprised if they didn't check their legal position before taking the action they did. I think they have been pushed into making this settlement by the German unions, which are unacceptably powerful.

[Jason @ Apr 9th 2008 11:57AM]

Look at it this way, when a US company closes the doors on a high tech factory to ship it to China the U.S. Congress gives them extra money, a bottle of champaign and a hearty clap on the back.... and then reminds them that they can illegally hire some more H2B Visa workers to come in and replace even more US workers.