back to article No way Moto: Chinese workers protest Google job cuts

Motorola employees in Beijing and Nanjing were out this morning protesting the job cuts announced by Google earlier this week. More than 150 people demonstrated outside the Motorola company office in the Chinese capital, after Googorola said that it would be slashing 20 per cent of its workforce, Chinese news website Sina …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    American workers have been experiencing layoffs for several years due to off-shoring manufacturing to China; the Chinese are now simply feeling the pain that many Americans have been feeling.

    1. Ross K Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      What goes around comes around...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      That's more fault of the American companies that decided to off-shore, not these workers.

      They are people like you and me. Why should they have to suffer for their American bosses mismanagement?

      Also, I thought Google did no evil? I want to see them saying that to these guys with a straight face.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Laying people off is never pleasant but describing it as evil is stretching things a bit...

  2. Dan Paul
    Pirate

    Karma is a bitch isn't it?

    Ask the thousands of US Motorola workers how they felt when all of their jobs originally went to China.

    I have said it before and I'll say it again. OFFSHORING JOBS IS TREASON!

    Sending jobs overseas undermines the economy of ANY nation. If that's not treason, I don't know what is. Now that the other shoe has finally dropped on China, perhaps they will finally understand why everyday working people in many Western countries dislike you so.

    BTW, this round of layoffs isn't due to "mismangement" it's due to the global recession.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Karma is a bitch isn't it?

      Recession? Motorola was in the shitter even before that started.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Karma is a bitch isn't it?

      "I have said it before and I'll say it again. OFFSHORING JOBS IS TREASON!"

      It's called the free market. You know, one of the founding principles of the US?

      Perhaps you should learn to deal with it.

      1. Dan Paul
        Pirate

        Re: Karma is a bitch isn't it?

        PLEASE Let me know when it happens to you so I can GLOAT. I saw what happened to people from the Motorola plant here in Buffalo as well as the Delphi plant in Lockport, NY.

        Offshoring IS as TREASONOUS as "Terrorism".

        You must be one of those "Manager" types, with no conscience or morals.

        There are FAR better ways to deal with economic turndowns than use that as the excuse to ship jobs permanently overseas. Reduced hours is one way. Getting rid of upper level management is another (however unlikely).

        The so called "Free Market" is not "free" and never has been. Somebody (other than the "freemarket capitalist") always ends up paying, often with their lives.

        BTW, it is NOT one of the "founding principles of the US".

        It is however the founding principle of the "Robber Baron" class like Astor, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan et al that raped both the land and the people of this country for the mighty dollar.

        Those are the class of people that Romney is trying to elevate as his heroes.

  3. Law
    Unhappy

    Doesn't matter what country you live in, what company you work for, or the reason for being made redundant... one thing is almost always true.... it sucks balls.

    Been there myself and despite coming out of it better off after getting a better job elsewhere, it was a crappy 3 months going through the consultation period.

    I do think they are a little luckier than what could have happened though. Under previous management I'm guessing their severence pack would be next to nothing, and had android not started selling motorola phones again, and google not sniffed around them for a year their jobs would have been gone a lot sooner. I doubt that brings them much comfort right now though.

    1. JetSetJim
      Alert

      Severance

      Under the Moto management, the severance package in China was actually quite good. Also, from what I recall being told by Moto (Solutions) staff in the time of the NSN acquisition, the actual acquisition made everyone redundant in China Moto-Solutions and then they had to be rehired by the purchasing company (NSN) - effectively resetting their length of service to 0 but they all got the Moto-bung, plus the length of service reset made it much easier to hop ship before the axe fell as no-one felt tied to the new owner. It was never clear to me if this was a condition of the deal to purchase, or if this was a legal requirement - scuttlebutt seemed to hint at the latter.

      With regards to the job market (in BJ at least), all the major telco-manufacturers have significant presences in BJ, so there's ample scope for a new job.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To add some context, there have been a number of cases where workers in China were not paid back wages or compensation because foreign companies decided to close their subsidiary in China without settling their accounts. Some of these workers might be direct employees of the Chinese subsidiary, or some of suppliers that may not (be able to) pay back wages if the foreign company does not pay up.

    It is very unlikely that Google/Motorola will go this route, as they still have substantial business operations in China. But this explains why you are likely to see some protests whenever layoffs and closures are announced. See http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news24243.html (and the horribly biased and incomplete article at http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/stranded-in-china-debt-dispute-leaves-missouri-businessman-in-limbo/article_ad02e834-b71b-11e1-9b6a-0019bb30f31a.html) for a recent example of a US company screwing its suppliers.

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