Last week, Virgin Media settled a 20-month dispute with BSkyB to return basic channels including Sky1 and Sky News to its cable TV service. The company's share price had fallen 4.04% from its opening level to $5.47 at around 3.20pm today, after the job cuts announcement. Andy Kerr, the deputy general secretary of the CWU union, said: "This announcement has come as a complete shock to the CWU. We have not been advised by the company about these job losses." Kerr added that the CWU was "extremely disappointed" at the way Virgin Media had chosen to make a surprise announcement "which will be very damaging for staff morale". Virgin Media is divided into seven divisions. Virgin Mobile employs about 800 people; corporate, which includes the human resources, legal, finance and procurement departments, totals 1,300 employees. The consumer division - which includes knowledge management, customer management, brand and marketing, sales and products - accounts for 5,000 staff.