Nokia Shuts Down Plant, Riles Governor

Oops, Nokia’s worst enemy is no longer Qualcomm. It’s Juergen Ruettgers.

Nokia plans to shut down one of its automotive manufacturing plants in Bochum, Germany, that currently produces GPS devices, hands-free headsets, and chargers. Ultimately, 2,300 workers would lose their jobs, which makes a certain governor of Bochum, rather bitter about the whole affair:

“I am very angry, above all about the way this happened…we are not simply going to accept this — this is not yet the end of the debate.”

The governor also claimed that the plant closure would tarnish Nokia’s image, and said that he plans to review and possibly recover any subsidies paid out to Nokia.

Nokia cited a lack of “competitiveness” as the main reason for the shutdown, and then quite nicely dropped the fact that Bochum workers cost 10 times more than those in a nearby plant in Romania.

So much for a quiet exit.

Nokia Decision to Shut Plant Fuels Anger - Yahoo! AP

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 10:29 pm and is filed under Wireless Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.