Alcatel-Lucent Staff March to Protest Job Cuts

On the day prior to a meeting of the European group committee of Alcatel-Lucent in Paris last Friday, several thousand staff marched to protest the recently announced job cuts in the company. Union representatives said that some 5,000 staff marched in the protest, although local police put the figure at around 3,000. Police cordoned off the area during the march, which unions said had included employees from France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.

Alcatel-Lucent plans to shed a total of 12,500 jobs over three years, of which around 3,000 are in Europe.

Patricia Russo, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent emphasized that the staff reductions are the direct result of redundancies linked to the merger announced on December 1st, 2006, and of Nortel's UMTS activities acquisition. It is also linked to the adaptation of our business model related to our customers' rapidly evolving needs and to the adjustment of some activities to the market perspectives.

Those reasons, and especially the redefinition of the product portfolio, explains why a part of the plan concerns job reductions in R&D. While the company's presence in emerging countries is essential to adapt products to the specificities of those growing markets, the company insisted on the fact that those countries would experience the impact of synergies as well.

Patricia Russo also reaffirmed the company's strong commitment to R&D in Western Europe and North America in particular."

Posted to the site on 19th March 2007