Union Condemns Ericsson UK Research Job Cuts

The UK’s largest union Unite has criticised the announcement this week by Swedish telecoms specialist Ericsson that it is closing a research and development site in Coventry five months after it was opened with the loss of around 700 jobs.

In a statement, Unite said that the decision had hit workers hard as most didn’t expect the facility – only opened in May this year – to face closure. “This has come as a bolt out of the blue for the workforce and their families who were looking forward to a promising future in this newly opened site,” said Unite national officer Peter Skyte.

Skyte went on to claim that the closure of a research facility of this kind is a major blow to government claims that it is supporting technical innovation in the UK. “This decision by Ericsson to close the Ansty Coventry site and withdraw its R&D work…throws highly skilled workers out of work, and robs the UK of key technological development, vital for its future,” he said.

According to BBC reports, Ericsson has said that the site will close by the middle of next year and said that it plans to move its research and development to countries with “significant scale and product synergies”.

In August, Unite attacked another high-tech company Fujitsu UK for announcing plans to cut around 1200 jobs in its services arm, claiming that the moves were unnecessary given the company’s relatively healthy profits. Unite said that the cuts, which represent around 10 percent of the UK workforce, couldn’t be justified given that the company made profits of around £200m in the last 12 months.

Adobe also announced this week that it is cutting one in ten of its workforce globally with an expected loss of around 680 employees. Adobe revealed the losses in a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Microsoft also announced last week that it will cut an additional 800 employees from its payroll, from multiple locations around the world. These newest eliminations are part of a larger 5,000-employee cut announced at the beginning of 2009.