Yesterday Nokia started the cell phone production in the factory just established in Jucu, a village in the district of Cluj, Romania. The products assembled here are meant for the European market, as well as for Africa and the Middle East. The Nokia vice president Juha Putkiranta, who attended the opening of the factory in Romania, said they chose this new location because there was qualified labor force and the region was close to the outlet areas targeted by the company. She commented the area would undergo radical changes in the coming years and turn into a technological zone. She claimed Nokia was proud to be the engine of local development. Romanian trade union plans Nokia union According to Grigore Pop, a president of the Cartel Alpha union in Cluj, announced that over a fortnight they would establish a union in this new Nokia factory in order to provide employees with security and avoid situations such as the one of the factory in Bochum, which had been closed down. (...) He explained a minimum of 15 employees was needed to establish an union and he added there was no problem with it, since the new Nokia factory in Jucu employed hundreds of people. (...) He argued there was need of such a trade union so that they could take measures to avoid hardships. In the Nokia employment contract there are going to be included points on compensatory wages in case of sack or activity diminishment, as well as funds for labor force conversion. Grigore Pop suggested Romanian authorities should place some clauses in the contracts with foreign companies coming to Romania so that they would not leave in just a few years, after the facilities supplied by Romania were out of effect. For the beginning Nokia is going to hire 500 persons in Cluj and the factory intends to have about 3,500 employees by the end of 2009.

Gabi MOROIANU