Nokia under Siege – Workers at Indian factory strike over low wages

Nokia is a company under siege from multiple forces.On the global stage,it is fasting losing brand value,marketshare and profits under competition from Technology Giants Google and Apple.It is also losing its Indian fortress where it used to once reign supreme.With the company losing almost 20 percentage points in India’s telecom market,the last thing it needed was an employee strike at its factory in Sriperumbur in India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu.

Nokia has one of its biggest handset manufacturing operations in India with 8000 employees and exports a major part of the production.The India factory which was built a few years ago was Nokia’s acknowledgement of the importance of the Indian market towards the company’s topline and bottomline.However the recent setbacks in Nokia’s dominance of the global handset market seems reflected in its operations at its Indian stronghold as well.

Note the Indian labor dispute has been simmering since the last 6 months when a strike by a section of the unorganized workers was called in January of 2010.The recent settlement of wage changes and the suspension of the 60 workers since January has led to another major strike.

Strike at Nokia’s India plant hits production-paper – Reuters

Production at Nokia’s (NOK1V.HE) factory in India has been hit after workers began a strike demanding higher pay, the Business Standard reported on Wednesday.The newspaper said the strike began on Tuesday after employees’ talks with the management failed. The facility, near Chennai in south India, caters to local and export markets and employs 8,000 people.Nokia did not comment on the strike and the reported production loss, but said in a statement the company on Monday discussed a long-term wage settlement with the employees through their trade union.

Workers Strike at Nokia’s Indian Factory – PC World

Employees at Nokia’s mobile handset manufacturing plant in Chennai are protesting and disrupting work, after the company suspended some staff pending an inquiry, the company said on Thursday.The suspended employees are reported to have committed “acts of serious misconduct,” the company said in a statement.About 1,200 staff have joined the strike since Tuesday after 63 employees were issued suspension notices pending inquiry, a company spokeswoman said in an e-mail.A local daily, The Times of India, quoted M. Shanmugam, president of Nokia India Pvt. Ltd Employees Progressive Union as saying that the standoff was triggered after a worker was asked to report for a different shift, which he refused to do. After he was suspended, more workers joined to protest against the suspension and they were also suspended, he told the newspaper.The union claimed that about 2,000 staff were on strike, and production of nearly 100,000 mobile handsets was disrupted following the strike. Nokia does not disclose the production capacity of its facility.