JUCU, Romania (AP) — Mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. opened a factory in Romania on Monday as part of a program to shift production to low-cost locations in Europe and just hours after angry protests in Germany over plans to shutter a plant.
The factory will produce mobile phones and mobile phone parts for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in an investment worth 120 million euros ($174 million), Romanian officials said. Some 1,200 people will be employed at the plant by the end of the year.
However in Bochum, Germany, more than 4,000 people gathered outside the Nokia plant there late Sunday, standing shoulder to shoulder in a line that stretched more than 2.5 miles in protest against its planned closure.
''If we are going down, then we'll do it screaming,'' said Susanne Klug, wife of a Nokia employee, who took part in the protest, the largest of several that have been held since Nokia announced its plans to shutter the factory.
On Tuesday, employee representatives are to meet with members of Nokia's management to discuss the plant's future.
However, the investment has been welcomed in Romania, which is trying to stop the flow of some 2 million people who have left Romania to work in western Europe, most since 2000.
''We have a real global business and today the Cluj factory joins this network,'' said a senior Nokia executive, Juha Putkiranta, at the plant's opening ceremony.
Monthly salaries at the plant, 200 miles northwest of Bucharest, will average $318 a month before taxes, which is below the national average.
Local authorities said that the agreement with Nokia was valid for 30 years, and that Nokia would be granted some tax breaks.
