Lucent to Meet European Labor Leaders on Layoffs

Lucent Technologies Inc., which is trying to eliminate as many as 49,500 jobs worldwide, meets with French unions Wednesday to discuss trimming its European work force, a spokeswoman said.

Executives of the biggest U.S. maker of phone equipment met European employee representatives last week, said Marie-Dominique Bonardi, a spokeswoman at Lucent France. French executives will do the same with local unions, she said.

“It will be tougher to fire workers in France because unions see work as sacred and public opinion is against firing people,” said Michael Kraland, who helps manage about $100 million at Trinity Capital Partners in Paris.

Lucent, which in May rejected a merger with France’s Alcatel, plans to trim $4 billion in annual expenses and introduce new products to return to profitability. Like rivals Alcatel and Nortel Networks Corp., Lucent has suffered this year as phone companies, its clients, scaled back spending on their networks in response to slower economic growth.

“We can’t tell for the moment” how many jobs will go in Europe, because unions in countries including Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain must be informed first, Bonardi said. “We’ll announce it as soon as possible.”

On Friday, Lucent shares rose 29 cents to close at $6.60 on the New York Stock Exchange.