Alcatel-Lucent union expects 1,800 job cuts Alcatel-Lucent is planning to cut up to 1,800 jobs in Europe, French union leaders have claimed, in the latest sign of the rapid scaling down of the European and US telecoms equipment industry. Philippe Saint-Aubin, a representative of the company's European workers" council, said its members had been told about a planned reduction of between 1,650 and 1,800 posts at their most recent meeting with the Alcatel management team. The news emerged as Alcatel was preparing to publish fourth-quarter results on Friday, which are being viewed as potentially make-or-break for Ben Verwaayen, the chief executive. He was recruited three years ago to bring about a recovery at the long-struggling company but investors were alarmed in November when he downgraded profit forecasts and reported €1bn of negative cash flow for the nine months to September. A recent announcement from Ericsson, the leading wireless network builder, that fourth-quarter profits had fallen by 66 per cent has added to the sense of unease in the industry. Ericsson suffered a particularly difficult three months in the US, where Alcatel is also competing for business from the large telecoms groups. The loss of 1,800 jobs at Alcatel out of a total of about 79,000 is smaller than that planned at rival Nokia Siemens Networks, which aims to cut 17,000 posts worldwide. Nokia, the mobile phone maker and joint parent of NSN, also said this week it was cutting 4,000 jobs at its smartphone manufacturing bases in Europe and the Americas after announcing plans to shift production to Asia. Mr Saint-Aubin stressed that worker representatives had been told Alcatel would strive to avoid compulsory redundancies and many of the job losses would be absorbed by moving staff to overseas posts and natural attrition. Union leaders said about 500 positions were under threat in Italy, 20 per cent of the country's total. France, where job losses are hugely sensitive in the run-up to May's presidential election, is expected to undergo a reduction of about 5 per cent and Belgium about 10 per cent. Alcatel, which is expected to outline further details on its plans to restructure alongside the results on Friday, declined to comment on the level of expected job losses. "This would be a part of longstanding efforts to reduce costs," it said. It would be wrong to think it is some kind of major programme. Mr Verwaayen said last month there was "no way" the company was contemplating similar cuts to those seen at NSN. Hundreds of French union members are planning to demonstrate outside Alcatel's Paris headquarters on Friday during the results presentation in protest against a freeze in salaries at the company.