FRANKFURT: Several hundred people demonstrated in three German cities on Friday against plans by electronics and engineering giant Siemens to axe thousands of jobs in Germany. Protests were held in Munich, Berlin and Duesseldorf against plans by the firm to shed 2,300 people at the group's fixed-line telecom network businesses (ICN), 300 at its mobile network unit in Munich and more than 1,000 at its industrial solutions and services unit I&S.

"They'll miss the workforce in the future," Bertin Eichler, a member of the IG Metall union and of the Siemens supervisory board, told the crowd in Munich. He called on management to accept union proposals to make the savings through shorter working hours and more insourcing for consultants, retaining the jobs.

The unions said their representatives on the Siemens supervisory board do not have enough voting power to stop the job cuts. They said the company has set a deadline of October 15 for reaching agreement on the job cuts, but the deadline is meaningless.

At 1501 GMT Siemens shares were up 6.00 percent at 37.10 euros, while the blue chip German DAX was up 4.63 percent. Siemens shares have lost over half their value this year, compared with a 63 percent fall on the Dow Jones European Stock tech index.

A Siemens spokesman declined to confirm that it had set a deadline but said the firm was keen to restructure. "We always set ourselves goals, time frames," he said. "We can't go on discussing the situation. ICN is in a difficult position... but we want to find a solution for both sides. The 14, 15, 16th of October -- the date doesn't matter."

ICN posted a third-quarter loss of 84 million euros ($82.8 million). Mobile unit ICM posted a loss of nine million euros and industrial solutions and services a loss of 32 million.

The telecoms network equipment sector has been hurt by a lack of spending by operators, many of which are saddled with overcapacity and heavy debt after having paid large sums for third generation network licences.

Industrial solutions and services is suffering from internal inefficiencies and sluggish economic growth. The union said Siemens's plan was to set up a special employment vehicle to help the laid-off workers find employment, but all the jobs would go.

Siemens has so far announced 17,800 job cuts at ICN since last year, though it is considering further cuts. At ICM the firm has announced total cuts of 5,300, and 2,000 cuts at industrial solutions and services.

Altogether since last year the group has implemented "more than half" of the 33,400 job cuts it signalled worldwide. Those in Germany represent less than half the number that are being shed. It wants to reduce a further 5,000 jobs by selling units.

© Reuters