BERLIN (Reuters) - German unions on Thursday called for a consumer boycott of Nokia products to protest against the cellphone maker's plans to close a German plant.

Nokia, the world's top cellphone maker, said on Tuesday it wants to move production to lower-cost regions and said the plant, in the western city of Bochum, is not competitive enough. The company has said it may cut up to 2,300 staff.

"Boycott Nokia!" Dietmar Muscheid, regional head of the Confederation of German Unions (DGB) said in a statement.

"Whoever buys a cellphone today should think about the choice they are making and what catastrophic consequences the company's actions in Bochum will have for thousands of workers," Muscheid, who heads the DGB in the southwest state of Rhineland-Palatinate, said.

The German government has urged Nokia to reconsider the plant closure and has threatened to block any European Union aid for the relocation. The European Commission, however, has said the cellphone maker will not receive any.

Government officials will meet "high-ranking Nokia representatives" this week to discuss the plant's future, the online edition of the Financial Times Deutschland reported on Thursday, citing a deputy economy minister.

"I'm not convinced by the various reasons given by Nokia for closing the plant," Hartmut Schauerte, who will be taking part in the meeting, told the FTD.

Nokia says labor costs in Germany are nearly ten times those in EU-newcomer Romania, where it plans to move most of the production.

(Reporting by Nikola Rotscheroth; Writing by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Quentin Bryar)
© Copyright 2007 Reuters.

Photo:
A padlock is pictured in front of the factory of Nokia in Bochum January 16, 2008.. German unions on Thursday called for a consumer boycott of Nokia products to protest against the cellphone maker's plans to close a German plant. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender