Nokia faces dissent from within, Finnish trade union demands €100,000 for every sacked employee

It's not easy to be Stephen Elop these days. After Nokia, the biggest phone manufacturer in the world, shook the mobile community with the announcement it's to make Windows Phone its "principal smartphone strategy", waves of joy, sadness and sheer bewilderment were registered.

Nokia's shares fell 25%, and a "a group of nine young Nokia shareholders" demanded the "immediate discharge of Stephen Elop from his duties as President and CEO of the company", as well as a return to MeeGo as the principal future platform of the company, and prolonging the lifespan of Symbian OS to "a minimum of 5 years".

This group, which called itself Nokia Plan B, already gave up, because "the responses that we received from institutional investors were not encouraging". Nevertheless, it's reported that their ideas found a sizeable support (you can read the group's manifesto if you follow the first link below), which spells trouble for Elop come May 3, when Nokia's Annual General Meeting for shareholders takes place.

To make things even worse for Nokia, the Finnish trade union Pro announced it's demanding €100,000 for every Nokia employee who is given the sack (in Finland) because of the new Nokia strategy. The union calculates that up to 25% of all Nokia employees (said to be 20 000 in total) in the Scandinavian country may lose their jobs in the near future.

Things are not looking rosy for Stephen Elop at the moment, eh? But, anyway, do you think this Nokia-Microsoft partnership will pay off in the long run?
 
source: Nokia Plan B, Nokia Plan B, Engadget and Wall Street Journal