Nokia's India union welcomes Microsoft takeover

Welcoming the acquisition, employees' unions said they wanted the firm to convert the factory into a multi-product facility

A letter from Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer has brought some relief to the over 15,000 people whose livelihood is dependent on Nokia’s special economic zone (SEZ) near Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The SEZ is one of the key sources for Nokia to address its global markets. While welcoming the reported acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft, employees’ unions said they wanted the US-based firm to convert this factory into a multi-product facility.

Nokia India has said they will not be able to provide more information than what’s reported in the media globally on Microsoft’s $7.2-billion takeover of the Finnish company’s telephone business. In his letter to Microsoft employees on the acquisition, Ballmer said: “There are no significant plans to shift where work is done in the world as we integrate. So, we expect the Nokia teams to stay largely in place, geographically.”

Said M Shanmugam, general secretary, Labour Progressive Front that represents workers at the factory: “Compared to competitors like Samsung, Nokia is not aggressive when it comes to bringing out new products. Besides, the factory manufactures only mobile phones, unlike the competitions, which are multi-product. This leaves doubt in the employees’ mind that work is not permanent in nature.”

Microsoft should look at converting this factory into a multi-product manufacturing facility and should give a guarantee that no worker would lose his job because of the ownership change, he added.

Of the total workforce, two-thirds are temporary employees. “It doesn’t make a difference for us, whether it’s Microsoft or Nokia. At the end of the day, both are MNCs (multinational corporations).”

Echoing his view, P Suresh, treasurer, Nokia India Thozhilalar Sangam, another union, said of late, the employer-employee relation in the factory was good and the workers expected this to continue with the new owner.

Nokia Special Economic Zone at Sriperembudur, according to the ministry of commerce, reported physical exports worth Rs 12,136.5 crore from 2006-2007 to 2011-2012. The SEZ provides direct employment to 15,264 people. Investment of Rs 2,539.3 crore has already been made in this SEZ, out of which foreign direct investment is Rs 548.8 crore.