In Tampere, union shop stewards Kalle Kiili and Jarmo Talvitie saw the transfer of employees to the Dublin-based consultancy firm Accenture and the expansion of Windows development in Tampere as good news.

"There will be fewer redundancies in Tampere than had been speculated," Kiili told YLE. He added that without the transfers to Accenture there would likely have been twice as many job losses in Finland.

'No Shouts of Hooray'

The chief shop steward of Nokia's Espoo unit, Mikko Lintunen, noted that employees have long known of the need for staff reductions. He added that they are accustomed to change, but that each person is naturally concerned about the fate of his or her job.

"It wasn't really a relief, but quite positive anyway," Oulu employee Pekka Kumara told YLE as he left the Nokia meeting at Club Teatria.

In Tampere, employee Janne Järveläinen said that people reacted quietly at their local event. "There were no shouts of hooray, but not much else either. I guess we knew this was coming and that people would have to be let go."