Airbus announces 10,000 job cuts

EADS also said that Airbus planned to open its Meaulte plant in France, Nordenham in Germany and Filton in Britain to investors and had already received offers.

 

 

The company said it planned to sell or close three other Airbus sites – Saint-Nazaire-Ville in France and Varel and Laupheim in Germany, sparking protests from trade unions.

 

Unions in the two countries to be hardest hit – France and Germany – have threatened strikes and protests should Airbus close plants or force redundancies.

 

There were protests at Airbus factories in France at Meaulte and St Nazaire and the head of the European works council warned of wider walkouts.

 

“It will be a strike but perhaps a strike is not enough. Airbus is following the route of Boeing to more outsourcing,” Jean-Francois Knepper, chairman of the European works council, told France’s LCI TV before meeting with Gallois.