Hamburg, May 20, (dpa/GNA) – The aerospace and defence group Airbus is sticking to its plans to reorganize its aircraft production in Germany and France, a spokesperson said on Wednesday, despite strong criticism from staff.
“The establishment of two new companies for aerostructure assembly in France and Germany continues to move forward,” an Airbus spokesperson said following talks with the European works council.
Since the plans were first announced in April, Airbus has decided that moving all of the Hamburg plant’s structural and equipment assembly activities to the new German unit would make for greater operational efficiency, the spokesperson said.
This unit, and a corresponding unit in France, are to have “a similar range and size, with around 9,500 employees each.” the spokesperson said.
“The final assembly activities at the Hamburg site are not included in these considerations,” he noted.
Progress has also been made in terms of plans to set up a new unit to focus on the production of individual parts and small components in Germany.
“Here, Airbus favours the establishment of a separate unit with an external partner in order to create a solid, competitive and sustainable basis for the future,” the company said in a statement.
Airbus also said it wanted to consider ideas proposed by social partners and analyse a setup in which the separate unit would remain independent within the company.
Works councils and the IG Metall trade union have energetically opposed the plans, fearing that they could lead to outsourcing to countries where production is less expensive in the long term, the sell off of parts of the company and staff pay cuts.
German workers are also angry that Airbus plans to integrate its French subsidiary, Stelia, into the company, but would split off its German subsidiary, Premium Aerotec, for parts production.
GNA