Unions Plan Protests, Possible Work Action In Wake Of Airbus Cuts | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-04.29.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.23.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.24.24 Airborne-FltTraining-04.25.24

Airborne-Unlimited-04.26.24

Thu, Mar 01, 2007

Unions Plan Protests, Possible Work Action In Wake Of Airbus Cuts

14,000 Workers Stage Work Stoppage At French Plants

In the aftermath of Wednesday's announcement of job cuts for 10,000 Airbus workers throughout Europe, labor unions say the planemaker and its parent company should prepare for massive protests, and work stoppages.

"We will not simply accept the concept of the EADS board," said Rüdiger Lütjen, the head of the Airbus Germany works council, to the International Herald Tribune. "We will fight for every job."

Union officials report some organized efforts have already begun. On Wednesday -- hours after details of the restructuring plan laid out by parent company EADS, in its attempt to makeover the struggling manufacturer -- nearly 14,000 blue- and- white-collar workers at four French sites stopped work for two hours.

"The response has been massive," said Force Ouvriere spokesman Julien Talavan, adding French and German workers are planning coordinated protests by the middle of this month. "This is just the beginning."

Airbus CEO Louis Gallois said the company expects most of the job cuts will come from subcontractors and temporary employees -- limiting losses among Airbus workers to around 5,000. Gallois added the company would seek those remaining cuts through early retirement plans, and voluntary layoffs... but he added the company would resort to forced layoffs if necessary.

As Aero-News reported Wednesday, Airbus has over 56,000 employees throughout its plants in the United Kingdom, Spain, France, and Germany. The "Power8" restructuring plan calls for 3,200 jobs to be cut at French factories, and another 1,100 corporate-level jobs at the company's Toulouse headquarters. German facilities will suffer 3,700 job losses, with 1,600 UK workers getting the axe and another 400 in Spain.

Airbus plans to court partners for three plants -- Filton in the UK, Meaulte in France and Germany's Nordenham. The company will sell its Laupheim, St. Nazaire-Ville and Varel plants outright.

The planemaker's newest widebody offerings, the A380 superjumbo and the A350XWB, are the reason for much of Airbus' current economic misfortunes. A series of production delays have plagued the A380, pushing its scheduled delivery date 22 months past what was originally promised. Last year, the company's original A350 proposal underwent a costly redesign, to make it more competitive against Boeing's upcoming 787 Dreamliner.

Airbus has also suffered against a weakening American dollar. Airbus' parts and production costs are in euros... but the planes are sold in dollars.

"A strong euro is a choice," Gallois said Wednesday. "Unfortunately, I am not in charge of the currency policy of Europe."

FMI: www.airbus.com

Advertisement

More News

Unfortunate... ANN/SportPlane Resource Guide Adds To Cautionary Advisories

The Industry Continues to be Rocked By Some Questionable Operations Recent investigations and a great deal of data has resulted in ANN’s SportPlane Resource Guide’s rep>[...]

ANN FAQ: Turn On Post Notifications

Make Sure You NEVER Miss A New Story From Aero-News Network Do you ever feel like you never see posts from a certain person or page on Facebook or Instagram? Here’s how you c>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (04.29.24): Visual Approach Slope Indicator (VASI)

Visual Approach Slope Indicator (VASI) An airport lighting facility providing vertical visual approach slope guidance to aircraft during approach to landing by radiating a directio>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (04.28.24): Airport Marking Aids

Airport Marking Aids Markings used on runway and taxiway surfaces to identify a specific runway, a runway threshold, a centerline, a hold line, etc. A runway should be marked in ac>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (04.28.24)

Aero Linx: The Skyhawk Association The Skyhawk Association is a non-profit organization founded by former Skyhawk Pilots which is open to anyone with an affinity for the A-4 Skyhaw>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2024 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC