Say Opposition Has Gone Unheeded

If you didn't listen to us before... maybe you'll listen when we walk off our jobs. That's the message Airbus workers have for management at EADS, who threaten to strike if the European aerospace consortium fails to listen to their opposition to the planned sale of four plants. 

"If Airbus delays, we will put some pressure on them, with all of the possible results on the company," Thomson Financial reports IG Metall spokesman Daniel Friedrich told Focus magazine.

As ANN reported, EADS has called for the elimination of approximately 10,000 jobs, and the sale or closure of six plants under its controversial Power8 restructuring plan for the beleaguered planemaker. The plan was mandated following huge losses EADS incurred last year, as a result of delays to the Airbus A380 and A350 XWB programs.

Speaking of the A380, the proposed strikes could hit production lines for the massive plane... a chance Airbus would prefer not to take, given that the planemaker seems to finally have that program on track.

IG Metall -- the German Metalworkers Union -- opposes the sale of the plants to any of the companies now bidding for them: Boeing, Spirit Aerosystems, MT Aerospace, and Breman-based OHB.

FMI: www.airbus.com, www.igmetall.de