Motorola Fears for 400 U.K. Jobs

By Chris Druce, Electronics Weekly -- 7/31/2002

Motorola Inc. may cut as many as 400 jobs in Swindon, England, in response to the continuing weakness of the telecommunications infrastructure market.

The company has entered into a consultation period with employees at its Groundwell West and Euroway sites to decide the best course of action. The sites employ just under 1,400 people between them.

Collectively, the sites function as Motorola’s U.K. center for infrastructure; manufacturing basestations for the European, African and Asian markets, a fact that the company has said will guarantee their longterm future.

Activities at the center cover the full spectrum of the company’s infrastructure business including R&D, engineering, marketing and sales, addressing existing GSM technology and the forthcoming 3G technology.

"Demand for basestations remains soft across the board," said Patrick Hamilton, Motorola's director of communications for the UK and Ireland. "We expect an upturn but not until 2004, so there is still a significant period of toughness to endure before this."

The cuts are part of 7,000 global job losses announced this month. Just last week the company announced its largest ever quarterly loss of $2.3 billion.

Motorola said no other U.K. job losses are expected at present.

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