Nokia Plans To Cheat Romanian Workers

The good news for Romania is that Nokia plans to build a factory in the Eastern European country. The bad news for workers is their pay will be substandard. Of course the mobile phone make is closing a more expensive German plant tossing workers on the street. Don't you just love capitalism?

JUCU, Romania - Mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. opened a factory in Romania on Monday as part of a program to shift production to low-cost locations in Europe and just hours after angry protests in Germany over plans to shutter a plant.

The factory will produce mobile phones and mobile phone parts for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in an investment worth 120 million euros ($174 million), Romanian officials said. Some 1,200 people will be employed at the plant by the end of the year.

However in Bochum, Germany, more than 4,000 people gathered outside the Nokia plant there late Sunday, standing shoulder to shoulder in a line that stretched more than 2.5 miles in protest against its planned closure.

"If we are going down, then we'll do it screaming," said Susanne Klug, wife of a Nokia employee, who took part in the protest, the largest of several that have been held since Nokia announced its plans to shutter the factory.

On Tuesday, employee representatives are to meet with members of Nokia's management to discuss the plant's future.