Protests spread as Airbus announces 10,000 job cuts[fr][de] 

Airbus chief Louis Gallois announced plans to lay off 4,300 workers in France, 3,700 in Germany, 1,600 in Britain and 400 in Spain over the next four years. Roughly half the cuts will come from the 57,000-strong Airbus work force and the rest from subcontractors, which currently employ a further 30,000 staff. 

The company said that it will seek to avoid forced redundancies by using voluntary schemes such as early retirement, but made no promises. "Should these schemes not generate the expected level of reductions within the next twelve to eighteen months, other measures will have to be considered," Airbus said. 

Nevertheless, the announcement immediately spurred strong reactions from workers both in France and Germany, with spontaneous walk-outs by staff and other work stoppages. Joint actions are being planned. 

No decision has yet been taken as to which, if any, of Airbus's 16 factories, spread across the UK, Spain, Germany and France, could be closed – largely due to the failure of these countries to reach a compromise on the matter. 

The four EU members must now decide whether they wish to introduce a request for aid from the EU under its €500 million globalisation fund, available since 1 January this year, to give a helping hand in cases where more than 1,000 workers are made redundant because of "major structural changes in world-trade patterns" (EurActiv 14/12/06). 

The lay-off plans are part of a general restructuring programme, disclosed on 28 February and dubbed Power8, aimed at making Airbus – which has admitted that its current financial situation is "unsustainable" – more efficient in view of facing up to increased competitive pressure. 

Airbus hopes that its cost-cutting scheme will liberate €5 billion in cash by 2010. It needs the money to pay for the development of a new wide-body plane, the A350, to challenge Boeing's 787 Dreamliner. 

Competition between the two aeronautics giants is raging. Since 1999, Airbus had succeeded in overtaking its American rival, but in 2006, as the European company struggled to deal with internal issues, Boeing caught up again, booking considerably more orders for future delivery. 

France, on 1st March, said that it would provide €100 million in new financial support for Airbus, to fund the development of carbon-fiber composite technologies, essential for the construction of the new A350. 

This risks exacerbating the conflict with the US – with whom the EU is already engaged in a battle at the WTO  over allegations of illegal subsidies. Indeed, the US has warned the EU as well as the four countries involved in Airbus that any government- spending on the A350 would violate international rules (EurActiv 16/11/06). 

Airbus Chief Executive Louis Gallois said: "We are doing what other companies have done, but we're a bit late." He criticised the strong euro, saying that it is "a choice made for the (European) consumer, perhaps made not totally for the producer", adding: "We cannot continue to produce at our current euro costs and sell at Boeing's dollar prices." 

He pledged to put an end to "poisonous infighting" over competing national interests within the company, saying: "We need to be interested in the future of Airbus and for that we need to be one integrated company." 

He also said that he would meet with union leaders to try to convince them that the plan will work and that strike action would only cause further harm. 

EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot on 1 March called for Airbus to be free of "political interference", saying: "We are paying the high price of bad governance, with the involvement of several governments, instead of having confidence in the company." 

However, at the same time, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced his government's decision to inject a further €100 million into Airbus. 

"The big shareholders of the group, French and German, have taken a major decision - to launch the A350. This project will ensure a real industrial future for the company. That is the key to maintaining a strong aerospace industry in Europe," he said, adding that restructuring was necessary for this to go ahead. "This plan is necessary to definitively end the situation of uncertainty and prepare for the future," he added. 

In the meantime, the head of the French Socialist Party, Francois Hollande, sharply criticised the French government for generating the crisis. "I accuse the governments in place since 2002 for not having played their parts, of vigilance, of supervision and even of the nomination of personnel," he said. 

French presidential candidate Segolène Royal added that, if elected, she would seek support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to reverse the job cuts and to "rebuild the entire management of the company from the ground up" in order to solve the "crisis in command" in the France-based company. 

However, Merkel said: "We want the company to become competitive again," even if that means "hardship for the employees". 

Germany indeed appeared satisfied with the plan, which Economy Minister Michael Glos said "balances" the burden of cuts fairly among national investors and secures future production and development capacity in his country. 

Workers  viewed the situation differently. "We'll fight for every job," said Ruediger Luetjen, chief works councilor for Airbus Germany. 

The union will now talk with the workforce on "what to do next", said Jutta Blankau, an official from Germany's IG Metall labor union, adding: "The fight for Airbus's future has just begun." 

Julien Talavan, a spokesman for France’s labour union, Force Ouvriere, echoed this thought, saying: "This is just the beginning." He blamed the French government, saying that it was not doing enough to protect its industries, and expressed regret that jobs would be lost at Toulouse instead of at the German factory in Hamburg. 

Prior to the announcement of the Power8 plan, Jean-Francois Knepper, leader of the Force Ouvriere union at Toulouse, blamed Germany for the restructuring, saying: "If Airbus is a tree, France has the thriving branches. If there are dead branches to be cut, they’re not in France."