Three strikes

26 November 2013 By Ethan Bilby

Microsoft’s 5.4 billion euro offer for handset maker Nokia met unexpected opposition from workers in Guangdong. With spotty legal protection, the easiest option is just to pay up. The result may be to push up the cost of deals, even where neither buyer nor seller is Chinese.

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Workers at a Nokia factory in southern China went on strike on Nov. 20 to protest what they called unfair treatment following the sale of the company’s mobile phones business to Microsoft.

Workers outside the factory gates said they were battling to change new contracts which they said they had been forced to sign after the September deal, Reuters reported.

A Reuters source with direct knowledge of the protest said Nokia had balked at what it saw as a demand for severance packages to workers who would retain their jobs under Microsoft.

A group of 5,000 workers of Cooper Chengshan (Shandong), a Cooper Tire joint venture with China’s Chengshan Group in Rongcheng city, went on strike on June 21 to oppose a deal with India’s Apollo Tyres.

In June 2013, U.S. businessman Chip Starnes was held captive by about 100 workers in a Beijing factory for a week. The workers had demanded severance packages even though the firm planned no further layoffs, Starnes said earlier.

(Research by Robyn Mak)

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