Chinese Employees Protest 18,000 Job Cuts

A couple of weeks ago, it was announced by Microsoft that they will be shedding their worldwide workforce by a whopping 18,000 jobs – which proved to be one of the biggest layoffs ever in the software giant’s years of existence. Out of the 18,000 layoffs, apparently over 66% of those (12,500 jobs in total) will affect the staff who are employed at Microsoft’s Nokia division, a division which was picked up by Microsoft earlier this year for $7.17 billion.

Needless to say, this major commercial surgery of sorts has being a particularly thorny issue in the side of many. Finland’s Finance Minister, Antti Rinne, did share the general feeling of disappointment in Microsoft after the announcement was made, and this kind of feeling is finally being expressed by the employees themselves who are willing to protest against the impending layoffs.

Reuters claims that there were hundreds of staff over at a Nokia research facility and factory in Beijing, China, who banded together and held a protest. At the protest, these staff waved banners and shouted slogans for a good five hours – where by then, I am quite sure that there were quite a number of sore throats in the house. The whole point of the protest was, according to one of the protesters, stand against “Microsoft’s hostile takeover and violent layoffs”.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones
Tags: Microsoft, Nokia