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Nokia has struck an agreement with union leaders to cut 1,000 jobs at its oldest cell phone manufacturing plant in Finland, according to news reports.
Nokia said that up to 1,000 jobs would be cut from the plant in Salo, Finland. The facility will be converted to handle software customization and the phones will be manufactured in Asia. There are currently about 1,700 employees working at the Salo facility. Most of the cuts will be completed by the end of June.
The job losses are part of a plan that Nokia announced in February, when the company announced it would eliminate a total of about 4,000 jobs at cell phone manufacturing plants in Salo, Finland, as well as in Reynosa, Mexico, and Komarom, Hungary.
Including the cuts announced in February, Nokia will have eliminated about 13,800 jobs in total over the past year. As of the end of 2011, the company employed about 134,000 people.
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The cuts come as the company tries to compete more aggressively with Apple and companies such as Samsung and LG, which are using Google Android software to build smartphones. A year ago, Nokia abandoned its Symbian operating system and formed a strategic partnership with Microsoft. It has introduced the first devices that use the Microsoft Windows Phone software on Nokia devices. And its flagship Lumia 900 is expected to launch in the U.S. later this month.
But the transition has not been easy for Nokia as it continues to lose market share throughout the world. The employee and spending cuts are part of CEO Stephen Elop’s strategy of getting Nokia back on track.
