Sides Bicker Over Whose Jobs Should Be Cut Under Power8; More Plane Delays, Too

Anyone who says CEOs don't earn their salaries hasn't run Airbus... and we wouldn't recommend applying for that particular job, either.

As if the ongoing fight by partner Northrup Grumman to retain a US Air Force tanker contract wasn't enough, Business Week reports workforce restructuring among the company's manufacturing facilities have French and German unions at each others' throats.

French employees are complaining that 2,000 Germans brought to Toulouse, France as temps to fix problems on the A380 never left. The French also say they have shouldered a disproportionate share of cost reductions.

The Germans are unhappy because some work on aircraft cabins has been shifted from Hamburg to Toulouse.

Airbus CEO Tom Enders displayed a knack for understatement. "The social climate is not good," he told the French business newspaper La Tribune. "It's impossible to change everything at the same time and at the same speed. To have a total, permanent equilibrium, as some of our unions want, is absolutely unrealistic."

He also blamed a lack of integration in Airbus, caused by nationalism, training and language problems, for the need to bring German workers to France to finish work started in Germany.

Enders admitted that allegations of insider trading by executives is not helpful, and is part of an erosion in the company's image and stock price. He also confirmed that he is a target in the probe. Enders told La Tribune the charges are "absurd."

But, he said, "It's evident that this case is seriously damaging our reputation and that of the company."

Also not helping Airbus' reputation was another revelation by Enders, who indicated during the La Tribune interview the planemaker's oft-delayed A400M military transport turboprop probably won't fly until "September or October" at the earliest -- months later than Enders originally promised earlier this year.

As ANN reported, in February Airbus CEO Thomas Enders told attendees at the Singapore Airshow the program's troubles were behind it, with no further delays on top of a 6-12 month postponement announced the month before.

The A400M project has been under development for over 20 years.

FMI: www.airbus.com