Hundreds of Chinese workers protest after Microsoft Nokia deal

[AIpha]

Hundreds of Chinese workers protest after Microsoft Nokia deal

Reuters
November 20, 2013, 11:36 pm

A Nokia mobile phone lies on a tablet computer showing logos of Microsoft, in this illustration picture taken in Frankfurt, November 18, 2013. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

By James Pomfret

DONGGUAN, China (Reuters) - Hundreds of workers shouted slogans on Wednesday outside a Nokia factory in southern China to protest against what they called unfair compensation after the company sold its mobile telephones business to Microsoft Corp .

Lack of trust in employers has often led Chinese workers to balk at takeovers they fear will harm employment conditions.

Workers massed outside the factory gates in the industrial city of Dongguan said they were battling new contracts worsening employment terms that they had been forced to sign after the U.S. software giant bought Nokia's unit in a September deal.

"We will definitely continue to fight until we get what's fair," said a young male worker wearing a checked shirt, who gave only his surname, Zhang.

Local riot police beat up four workers on Wednesday morning and took them away, several witnesses told Reuters.

About 30 police officers kept watch as workers clad in white Nokia uniforms held up banners with the slogans "Legally protect our rights" and "Demand fair compensation."

Nokia is continuing to talk to the protesters, the Finland-based company told Reuters in an e-mailed statement.

"Our manufacturing operations in Dongguan continue," it said. "To accommodate the temporary situation, we have also adjusted our operations in other manufacturing facilities."

But six protesters interviewed by Reuters said they had not heard from management at all.

"They haven't shown any sincerity in talking to us, and they won't do anything until things reach a critical stage," said one worker, who gave only his surname, Yang, and said he had worked at the factory for two years.

Nokia balked at what it saw as a demand for severance packages to workers who would not be fired, said an industry source with direct knowledge of the protest, who asked not to be named to avoid inflaming the situation.

"A small group of employees is taking this as an opportunity to demand severance packages despite the fact that their jobs will continue," the source said, adding that he did not expect lay-offs as a result of the deal with Microsoft.

The protesters represent just a few hundred of the 5,000 workers in the Dongguan factory, the industry source said.

Factory workers interviewed by Reuters said the Microsoft deal affected the compensation of thousands of workers, a claim the industry source characterised as untrue. Nokia declined to elaborate on its statement.

Nokia agreed in September to sell its devices and services business and license its patents to Microsoft after failing to recover from a late start in smartphones.

The sale is set to close in the first quarter of next year, after regulatory approvals.

Recent industrial unrest at the China units of foreign firms has ranged from strikes to hostage-taking.

In July, workers at a joint venture of U.S.-based Cooper Tire & Rubber Co and state-owned tyremaker Chengshan Group went on strike after Cooper agreed to be bought by an Indian firm.

Protesters said they doubted the ability of Indian tyremaker Apollo Tyres Ltd. to bail out Cooper's debts, and Chengshan eventually asked to dissolve the partnership.

In June, an American factory boss was held hostage in a Beijing plant for days by dozens of employees demanding severance packages.

(Writing and additional reporting by Megha Rajagopalan; Additional reporting by Li Hui and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

 

[borom]

Will these PRC spurs on the hide of Singaporeans spread more of this activism here-?as already seen by the bus drivers and crane operators.

 

[Neptune]

Nokia shareholders approve sale of handset business to Microsoft

Gathering in Helsinki's Ice Hall pays their last respects to a business that once dominated European phone manufacturing

Juliette Garside, telecoms correspondent
Follow @JulietteGarsideFollow @guardian
The Guardian, Tuesday 19 November 2013 19.52 GMT

Shareholders attend the Nokia Corporation meeting in the Helsinki Ice Hall. Photograph: Antti Aimo-Koivisto/AFP/Getty Images

Nokia shareholders have approved the sale of its mobile phone division to Microsoft after some 5,000 people braved icy rain in Helsinki to cast their vote and pay their last respects to a business that once dominated European phone manufacturing.

In the capital's Ice Hall, usually home to the national ice-hockey team, crowds witnessed a landmark moment in Finnish history. By a 99% majority, the emergency general meeting ratified the €5.44bn (£4.6bn) sale of Nokia's handset division. Nokia's chairman, Risto Siilasmaa, said he was aware the sale "would raise deep feelings" among Finns.

"On the board of directors we understood that, as the decision-makers, we would also be heavily criticised. However, we are convinced that continuing with the old strategy would have most likely led to great difficulties for Nokia, its shareholders and employees," Siilasmaa said.

When the sale concludes early next year, Nokia will be left with a telecoms network equipment business, its online mapping division, and a trove of valuable patents, only 10% of which have been licensed, according to executives. The company will continue to employ 6,000 people in Finland.

In a marathon four and a half hour meeting, much of the backlash from small shareholders was reserved for Stephen Elop, the chief executive hired from Microsoft who guided Nokia's sale to Microsoft before stepping down in September with an €18.8m severance package. Shareholder Hannu Virtanen said Nokia's board of directors had acted naively and Elop had been a "triple-A flop" who "drove the company to ruin". Finns have watched in despair as the 150 year old company closed factories, cut tens of thousands of jobs and cancelled its dividend.

Elop, who reportedly attended the meeting but did not speak, will transfer with the phones business back to Microsoft and is among those tipped to succeed Steven Ballmer as chief executive of the American software group.

The alliance Elop founded with Microsoft while at Nokia has begun to bear fruit, with the Lumia handsets that run Windows software helping to push Microsoft's market share up to 10% in Europe, where Apple and Android still dominate.

Siilasmaa, who has stepped in as interim chief executive, defended his predecessor, saying: "I have never met anyone who had done as much work as Stephen has done."

He revealed that other companies had expressed an interest in buying Nokia at the time of Microsoft's approach, but that the board considered the American group's offer to be the best option for shareholders.

Speaking from the public gallery, Marko Mannfors argued Nokia was being sold at a discount, and that a more appropriate purchase price would have been €15bn.

Nokia's stockmarket value stands at €22.5bn. The shares have doubled in price since the deal was announced, rising to a high of €6 on Monday before falling back to €5.82 by Tuesday's close.

Microsoft had been forced to act because of the money it was losing in supporting Lumia marketing efforts, Siilasmaa claimed. For every handset sold, Nokia paid Microsoft a $10 licence fee to use its software, but Microsoft paid Nokia $20 to support its marketing efforts. "From Microsoft's point of view, the equation does not work," the chairman said.

Nokia's handset arm lost €86m in the most recent quarter. Although that is an improvement from a €672m loss a year earlier, the company is a long way from recovering the market share taken by Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Android handsets.

The remaining networks business now faces a battle with activist shareholders led by Daniel Loeb's Third Point capital, which believes the company will have €8bn in cash once the sale completes, and that it expects a "meaningful portion" to be handed to shareholders as dividends.