Unite joins fight to save Nokia jobs

The mobile phone giant has announced 700 UK job cuts

The Unite union has vowed to resist plans by mobile phone giant Nokia to axe 700 jobs in the UK, with assistant general secretary Tony Burke describing the news as "another dark day for the British economy".

The union said it would take part in a concerted campaign to halt the job losses that will hit Nokia sites across the UK.

Nokia announced today that it will reduce its global workforce by 4,000 employees by the end of 2012, with its operations in the UK, Denmark and Finland suffering most of the cuts.

The job losses are part of Nokia's attempt to reduce operating expenses by €1bn (£0.8bn) by 2013.

In addition, the company's Symbian operating platform has now been transferred to Accenture along with 3,000 employees.

Despite repeated assertions that it will release Symbian phones for some time to come, Nokia effectively signalled the beginning of the end for the platform in February when it signed up with Microsoft to release Windows Phone 7 smartphones.

Nokia also plans to consolidate the company's research and product development sites.

All employees affected by the cut can stay on the Nokia payroll through to the end of 2011, the firm said. Nokia expects personnel reductions to occur in phases until the end of 2012.