FRANCE : NOKIA -TO CUT 1200- JOBS

PARIS : Nokia plans to eliminate 1.233 jobs at its Alacatel-Lucent subsidiary in France., slashing its workforce in the country by a third as it grapples with -

With intense competition in the telecom equipment market amid the launch of 5G networks, the company and unions said Monday.

It is the fourth round of layoffs at Alcatel--Lucent in the four years since the hardware manufacturer was bought by Nokia in 2016, and the biggest by far.

''It's a catastrophe,'' Bernard Tremulot of the CFDT labour union told AFP after a meeting where management unveiled the plan.

Nokia said the job cuts, mainly in research and support departments, were part of global cost-cutting efforts launched in late 2018, ''in a market environment where pressure on cost remains very intense.'' [AFP]