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MONTREAL – If Flextronics wants to close its Montreal assembly plant, it won’t be without a fight from Teamsters Canada.

The workers union said it would challenge Flextronics’ decision to close the factory and layoff some 700 workers, the Montreal Gazette reported today.

According to the report, Flextronics is cutting staff and moving production to Mexico to cut costs for Nortel Networks, a major customer. The moves wll take place over the next several months, culminating in September.

“We are going to fight until the end to make sure these jobs stay in Montreal. We think Nortel's behavior in this is unacceptable," the report quoted StÃ©phane Lacroix, a Quebec-based union spokesman.

The report claimed an internal memo stated, "Over (the) coming months, the work done on behalf of Nortel by Flextronics in St. Laurent will transition to Flextronics' Guadalajara facility, to other contract manufacturers and, in some cases, back into Nortel itself."

Ironically, Flextronics purchased the site from Nortel two years ago.

Nortel and Flextronics did not comment for the report.

ST. PETERSBURG – Foxconn Technology Group is making headway toward building an assembly plant near St. Petersburg. The firm has reportedly begun construction on a 12 hectare-site near Kolpino.

The company plans to invest about $50 million on the project and will employ some 5,000 staff at the site, according to reports.

Foxconn Rus and Logopark Kolpino signed an agreement on Feb. 22, which stated Foxconn’s plant will be constructed within Logopark.

A shortage of personnel in St. Petersburg is said to be a serious issue, and is unlikely to be resolved soon. Foxconn said it could introduce social incentives in an attempt to “improve the company’s compatibility in the market,” say published reports.

Plus, the company hopes to help with Kolpino residents currently working in St. Petersburg who commute between the suburbs and the city.

Hewlett-Packard has a stake in the project, and its PCs and laptops initially will be assembled at the plant. H-P’s share in the business is under discussion.

Initially 20,000 PCs and laptops will be produced in Kolpino, with future plans to expand production up to 100,000.

Production is planned for launch at the beginning of 2009.

HELSINKI -- Elcoteq will sell its Russian subsidiary ZAO Elcoteq to Flextronics. The deal includes Elcoteq's St Petersburg plant, and is expected to close in 60 days. Financial terms were not specifically noted, although Elcoteq said it would book a one-time gain of about $4.5 million in its second quarter.

MANKATO, MN -- Winland Electronics has completed a restructuring of its manufacturing and operations departments. The EMS company promoted Jeffrey Ocker to director of operations and Steve Trnka to director of manufacturing.

Ocker had been manager of manufacturing test engineering since 2006. Trnka has spent eight years at Winland as a program manager and strategic account manager.

The moves are intended to support aggressive EMS growth objectives and also better align the company to its 2008 and 2009 initiatives in program management, supply chain management, quality management and information systems, Winland said in a press release.

The restructuring follows the recent hiring of Warren Mitchell as executive supply chain leader.

NEENAH, WI -- Plexus Corp. plans to enter into a $150 million long-term debt facility and initiate a share repurchase program to repurchase up to $200 million of its common stock by the end of 2008. The moves are expected to be accrective to the company's second quarter earnings.

As part of the share repurchase program, Plexus has entered into accelerated share repurchase agreements with Morgan Stanley to repurchase $100 million of its common stock. The company will pay Morgan Stanley $100 million in exchange for approximately 2.2 million shares.

The rest of the repurchases -- up to $100 million -- will be made in the open market.

To pay for the buybacks, Plexus will use existing cash and new long-term debt of $150 million.

"This announcement reflects our ongoing commitment to our shareholders' total return," stated Dean Foate, President and chief executive. "We believe that repurchasing Plexus stock at current market prices is an attractive use of our capital with the potential to create significant shareholder value."

SMYRNA, GA -- Mentor Graphics will illustrate ways to cut design cycle time by 60% or more for board placing and routing in a free Webinar today at 2 pm EST. This presentation will describe some unique and innovative design-tool technologies that enable multiple designers, operating on a LAN or WAN network, to perform simultaneous placement and routing on the PCB. Users of this technology are reportedly experiencing more than a 60% reduction in layout times.

The Webinar will explain details of the technology and provide a short demonstration of multiple designer operations.

Register online here. For more information on this Webinar, click here.