For many months I skimmed over articles in my daily newsletter from Spiegel that dealt with the closure of a Nokia factory in Bochum, Germany. At stake were a few thousand jobs and at the time I didn’t really think about it.
Germany is experiencing an excellent economic growth rate and I felt something would probably fill that void in Bochum and replace the lost jobs. These kinds of closures of factories seem to be endemic and it was no surprise to see that the factory had been relocated to Romania.
The German trade unions voiced their outrage, even the German government got involved and tried to persuade Nokia to stay in Bochum. Romania on the other hand welcomed the company with open arms. Nobody in Romania was particularly sad that jobs had been lost in a city in Germany.
What did get me more interested in this story were some of the financial results posted by Nokia. It seems, according to the company’s CEO that “Nokia’s excellent fourth quarter results, October to December 2007, contributed to a year of high growth and increased profitability for the company".
For this period, fourth quarter of 2007, Nokia saw an increase of 44% in net profit, totaling $2.6 billion. At the same time Nokia announced its intention to cut 9 000 jobs, or 15% of its workforce by the end of 2010. Of this number 2 290 were based in Bochum, Germany.
By now I had started to think in terms of indecent profits, inhumane business practices, rampant capitalism etc etc. But then a further article in Spiegel today put the final touches to an incredible story.
The report states that Nokia appears to be negotiating with Romania’s government over a change in labour legislation. It seems that Nokia is hoping to be able to expect its workers to labour between 60 to 70 hours per week rather than the 48hrs set down by Romanian law at the moment.
Just to sumarise this shocking, to me anyway, business ethic that Nokia is exhibiting here: Nokia closes factory, retrenches workers, moves the factory to a poorer country so that the company can pay less in wages and improve the profits, announces that company has made indecent amounts of profit, applies to government of new country to extend work hours to between 60 to 70 hrs so that labour is truly exploited.
I think I got it about right. It’s not that difficult to understand. The principle is straight forward. Lets exploit the ordinary person so that a few individuals and institutional investors in Nokia can make huge amounts of money. Am I happy I’m not using a Nokia anymore. And here we thought the Scandinavians were such great humanitarians.
» left by robert melaccio sr (235 days 18 hours ago.)
Yes Anja you got it, it is called Greed. It is the New Age mentality of Globalism, Free Trade and all brought to us by those who "profess" God, goodness, of being moral and decent. In America our nation was formed on the principal of "for the common good". Do we see that today or do we see corporate greed and exploitation. I have taken to writing on Problogs and I am sure you have visted my works here. To think this is about people is the fallacy of this age and it matters not where you are from. To even think these so called leaders are for the people is another fallacy. It is an issue of the haves and the have not and growing. It is about time people everywhere woke up to it. Good job, RTM Respond to this comment
Was this article helpful to you? Leave a Public Comment or
Question:
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
