Prime Minister Juha Sipilä took a break from a debate in parliament today to tell journalists of his sadness at Nokia’s announcement that it is cutting 1,300 jobs in Finland as part of a worldwide 900 million euro savings programme.
"This is regrettable news," he said. "I have discussed this with Nokia CEO Rajiv Suri. This is the last bit of the change process. Hopefully this is the last of this kind of thing and now it’s on the road to growth."
Sipilä added that many municipalities where Nokia has cut staff have done good work in creating new businesses.
"Those actions should now continue apace," said the premier.
"Incomprehensible numbers"
In Tampere, workers reacted to the news with shock.
"The numbers announced now are completely incomprehensible," said shop steward Jani Nummikoski. "If it’s true that a quarter of the cuts are to come in Tampere, then that’s quite crushing. Quite incomprehensible numbers."
Nokia currently employs around 900 people in Tampere. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that sources familiar with Nokia’s plans expected some 10,000 to 15,000 job losses from the firm’s global headcount of 104,000.
"When we merged with Alcatel-Lucent, it was clear that there was a desire for savings," continued Nummikoski. "We weren’t told though how those figures were arrived at and what kind of business reasons they’re based on."