The June 2005 offloading of Siemens Mobile to little known (and even less heralded) BenQ of Taiwan could be interpreted in one of two ways. On the bright side, it was seen as a sensible realignment of a struggling European-based cellphone manufacturer with a Taiwanese entity more in tune with the modern-day economics of commodity electronics production and manufacturing. On the down side, it was a cynical exercise designed to take more than 6,000 employment positions out of the narrow and expensive confines of German employment law and drop them into the less generous Taiwanese jurisdiction instead.

The optimistic view was originally justified (click here). At the beginning of this month, a far uglier truth, as always measured in human terms, became apparent (click here).

Now the major trade union involved, IG Metall, is threatening to derail plans for a restructuring of Siemens Business Services until the BenQ issue is resolved. This is the clearest possible signal that the German government will now have to get involved.
Jim Chalmers