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Motorola announced this week it was cutting 4,000 jobs globally from its Mobility division. Chinese workers have expressed anger over the cuts and say they deserve more respect from the company.

On Monday (13 Aug), Motorola announced on its official Micro-blog that Motorola Mobility was reducing its headcount by approximately 4,000. Two-thirds of the reduction is set to occur outside of the U.S.

We contacted Motorola's Beijing office, but they did not tell us how many people would be laid off. The Tencent techonolgy website says the layoffs in China will be in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Tianjin. The Beijing area is the hardest hit with about 700 people having received pink slips from Beijing Motorola R& D center.

Liu Yang, Beijing, said, "Industry insiders say Motorola's has fallen far behind rivals such as Apple and Sumsung in the mobile phone market. The job cuts are part of the restructuring decision made by Google. In Beijing, this move has provoked angry reponses from the laid off employees. Protests occured right here at the Motorola Beijing office front door yesterday."

Laidoff employees hold up a banner protesting against Motorola's layoffs. Most of the staff have refused to sign the agreement terminating their contract, citing "unfair compensation" and "disrespect from the company". One microblog on Sina's Weibo says "The company's attitude is very harsh, and it refuses to negotiate at all. If no termination contract is signed by the deadline, the company will automatically terminate the contract."

Motorola announced this week it was cutting 4,000 jobs globally from its Mobility division. Chinese workers have expressed anger over the cuts and say they deserve more respect from the company. [CNTV]

Professor Lu Weifeng, China Univ. of Political Science and Law, said, "A legal staff reduction process should inform all workers or unions, explain the situation and listen to their views. In addition, they should give staff 30 days notice and the company should submit its lay-off plan to the local government. According to the labor law, pregnant workers cannot be laid off. If the enterprise is forced to close, the laid off personnel should ask for compensation from the company."

This is the biggest round of job cuts in Motorola's history. It comes a year after Google bought the money-losing cellphone maker for $12.5 billion. Analysts there are many reasons for the massive layoffs.

Chen Jian, Chief Telecom. Analyst of CITI Securties Co., Ltd., said, "Motorola's mobile device unit has lost money in 14 of the last 16 quarters. Apple and Samsung have gained 90 percent of the profit in the mobile market, and Motorola has suffered continued losses. Nationally, smartphone market competition has risen sharply. So Motorola has gone from a 3.5% share of the mobile phone market at the beginning of this year down to a 2.8% share now, and it's continuing to fall. These are the three direct reasons for the layoffs."

Analysts say job cuts will inevitably affect Motorola's Chinese operations, as traditional cellphone makers continue to struggle against smartphone makers. But the laidoff workers still want what they say they deserve.

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