Airbus unions have said that workers in France, Germany and Spain would strike tomorrow to protest the aircraft makerÂ’s plans to cut 10,000 jobs and spin off or close six European plants. The European MetalworkersÂ’ Federation said its member unions at all of AirbusÂ’ French and German plants would stop work, while in Spain 9,000 workers at AirbusÂ’ three factories and other sites owned by its parent company EADS would walk off the job for an hour. It said there would be a mass demonstration in front of EADS headquarters in Paris and some 20,000 people were expected to join a large protest in the German port city of Hamburg, with smaller demonstrations outside Spanish production sites. Trade unions in supplier companies based in Belgium and the Netherlands would support Airbus workers by traveling to the protests in neighboring countries, it said.
There are no plans for workers to demonstrate in Brussels. Socialist lawmakers at the European Parliament called on Airbus employees to stay firm in the face of restructuring plans, saying they would ask EADS unions to talk to them in Brussels on March 28 and 29 and had not ruled out meeting Airbus co-Chief Executive Louis Gallois at a later date. “Management errors lie behind Airbus’ difficulties,” said Martin Schulz, the leader of the Parliament’s pan-European Socialist group. “It is all the more shocking to see today that it’s the workers who pay the price and not the shareholders.”
Gallois last week urged politicians not to interfere in how the company managed its business.
| Good luck with that. |
Besides the job cuts – of which 4,300 would be made in France – Airbus plans to sell or close three plants and find industrial partners to take over and upgrade three more facilities producing fuselage and wing parts. Two of the six affected sites are in France, three in Germany and one in Britain.