Nokia disappearing from Bochum map

Railway stop named after Finnish company to get new name

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It will soon be two years since Nokia said that it would close down its well-established mobile telephone factory in the German Ruhr city of Bochum, and a year will soon have passed since the plant was actually closed down.
      Nevertheless, the name Nokia still provokes angry reactions in the city.
      “I don’t want to hear the name”, says Sabine Glasder, who sells tickets for the German railway company Deutsche Bahn, upon hearing the journalist’s request for a ticket from the centre of Bochum to a stop on the railway named after Nokia.
     
The mobile phone factory became a part of the identity of Bochum over the years - a prime example of the resurgence of an old Ruhr mining town. In addition to giving its name to the train stop, the train RB46 that goes past the stop was known as the Nokia Express.
      But no more. The name of the train has been changed, and it is now known as the Glücklauf - after an old greeting used by miners.
     
The stop itself is to get a new name. A Deutsche Bahn spokesman said by telephone that when new timetables come out on December 13th, Bochum Nokia will become Bochum Riemke, according to the neighbourhood where it is located.
      The mention of Nokia on the Glücklauf train leads to an intense discussion.
      “What’s the point of keeping the name after the factory left?” Asks conductor René Bradtke.
      Passenger Gaby Spoelgen shows her Nokia phone: “For me Nokia has always been the mobile phone”, she says.
     
The image of Nokia as a greedy hoarder of subsidies remains strong. Sabine Braun recalls how the company hired extra workers for the Christmas season in 2007, even though the company’s management had already decided to close the factory. “They just wanted a little more money.”
      There are few people near the Nokia stop. It is noon, and there are few commuters, but there is not much activity of any kind in the factory building.
      The biggest new entrepreneur is the German company Novero. The company, which produces hands-free devices for cars, employs 450 people, 250 of whom were hired directly from Nokia.
      “I was lucky. I found a new job in a couple of days after I was given notice”, says a woman at the factory gate, who gives Silvia G as her name.
      She says that losing her job was hard nevertheless. “There was no advance notice. We read about it first in the newspapers.”
     
According to the German labour union IG Metall, about 1,200 of the 2,300 Nokia employees have found new jobs. More than 1,000 are in retraining, for which Nokia is paying wages through the end of the notice period.
      But IG Metall has new concerns.
      The disengagement of the car manufacturer Opel from General Motors will cost jobs.
      It is feared that at least 1,000 of the approximately 6,000 employees at the car assembly plant will have to go.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nokia could face series of court cases in Germany (7.2.2008)
  Anti-Nokia sentiment unites Ruhr region in massive protest (23.1.2008)
  Nokia shutting down plant in Germany, moving manufacture to Romania (16.1.2008)
  Nokia given extra time to respond to demands for payback of German subsidies (13.2.2008)

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