Money losing airplane manufacturer announces 10,000 job cuts.
Employees walk off the job to protest:
Workers at the three affected factories in Germany reacted immediately to the announcement by stopping work and heading for the doors, according the union IG Metall. “They’ve had it up to here,” said a union spokesman.
French unions have also warned of possible strikes to protest the savings plan. “It will be a (call to) strike, but perhaps a strike is not enough,” said European works council boss Jean-Francois Knepper on French television earlier Wednesday. “Airbus is following the route of Boeing to more outsourcing.” Work at France’s Meaulte plant came to a halt on Wednesday in anticipation of the restructuring announcement. Following the announcement, some 1,000 workers in Toulouse — where Airbus is headquartered and where final assembly of the A380 takes place — began demonstrating against the job cuts.
That should help. Resisting all attempts to stay competitive with Boeing is sure to work out well in the long run.
The last while every morning I feel like walking off the job. Being self-employed means me and mine don’t eat, sooo… off to work I go. Probably have a few socialists spit at me.
I thank thee Lord, that I am not a socialist.
Well its a good thing we didn’t purchase any heavy lift aircraft from these guys. Sorry we cannot deliver your order until the strike is resolved:) OH and since the employees voted themselves a pay raise well have to tack on this small administration fee to balance the books.
it is a little difficult to make money selling jets built by a top down “planned” economy held captive by entitled unions paid in Euros while your customer pay you in US dollars that have actually decreased for 4 consecutive years.
Of course, against those odds, it would help if you could produce jets actually wanted! Isn’t funny how markets work. That you actually have to sell what you build.
What’s also working in your favour is your sneering socialist governments condemning the America, its government and its culture.
It seems like the whole anti-American thing is more than a little envy rather than so-called superiority.
It looks good on them!
/and don’t get me started on the extention of the Federal Liberal/PQ party operating as Bombardier!
Sometimes, when failures threaten suicide, they’re right: they really don’t deserve to live.
Let Boeing build the planes while the Eurabians make more whine.
Thomas Lifson at American Thinker has been following the troubles at Airbus.
“When a political project like Airbus falters while competing with a commercial enterprise like Boeing, political considerations predominate in developing countermeasures. The turbulent events of the past week demonstrate that the European rival of Boeing is still guided by politicians unwilling to concede the need for painful but necessary remedies, and more interested in looking good to their constituents than in solving the problems at the company.”
“The problems at Airbus now go beyond the row over which country will lose more jobs, and which country will build the next generation high tech model (with spillover potential for other high technology jobs), as explained in American Thinker last week. Although France and Germany continue to paper over the developing crises, they cannot do so forever. An extraordinary set of problems is leading to a pattern of brinksmanship, deferring tough choices until they explode. Thereby magnifying the damage.”
There is a very real possibility Airbus will go bankrupt.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/02/brinksmanship_at_airbus_1.html
Airbus going bankrupt?
cue music.
“Blame Canadaaaa….”
Airbus will fall apart and die, just as all socialist enterprise has done before. Socialistas will never grasp the concept of providing the marketplace with the product or service that the market demands, instead they manufacture a product to placate the over inflated egos of leftist politicos whom I would not personally trust to manage a manure pile.
Maybe Socialist Citoyen Dion could help out….$$$Carbon Credits for France instead of Russia and China (Mo). What`s a few billion to help out his fellow countrymen!
Either Fedex or UPS is the last to still have freighter orders for the A-380. I wonder if this will convine them to move order to Boeing, thus compounding Airburst’s slide?
And, yes, this should shut up the critics of DND’s sole source to Boeing.
Couldn’t happen to a nastier bunch of smug socialists. Europe Inc, soon to be BK themselves.
This is OUTRAGEOUS…I’m going on strike in sympathy of these agrieved European workers…I mean, after all, the social contract and all…screw profitability…I’m going on strike…
Oh wait…I own the company…and if I stop work I’m putting 16 people out of work….
OK…strike that last comment…business as usual…
This is OUTRAGEOUS…I’m going on strike in sympathy of these agrieved European workers…I mean, after all, the social contract and all…screw profitability…I’m going on strike…
Oh wait…I own the company…and if I stop work I’m putting 16 people out of work….
OK…strike that last comment…business as usual…
I am not an expert on this stuff – just what I read – but I fly alot – and Airbus does make very good planes – in fact I feel safer on Airbus than Boeing.
Senior Management Heads at Airbus have already rolled. They are moving to an outsourcing model (this is capitalistic). Probably many of these jobs being lost will move to other companies and will still provide the same function.
And don’t forget that Boeing has chopped as many as 40,000 jobs over the last 4 years – again part of this is outsourcing.
Airbus provides competition for Boeing which is a good thing for all of us.
Also, every government, to some extent, including the US supports their aerospace industries – they have to because of the capital needed. So when people make comments about Bombardier – don’t forget that Embaer (in Brasil) is probably supported to a far higher degree by their government than Bombardier – and I would not be surprised at all if Boeing is supported to a larger degree than Bombardier.
Ha-ha! Stupid European socialists!
They oughta try the North American system of free-market capitalism airplane manufacturing!
Boeing and Bombardier don’t need any stinking public subsidies!
Er, … um.
Boy, you people really are stoooopid.
thank gawd we didn’t get sucked in to buying the A400M and got the Boeing C17 instead.
The 400 is years late, over weight, slower than planned and is now in peril because of the larger corporate financial problems.
They should have stayed with the Canadian engine choice that won the original competition, but noooooooooooooooooooo the Euros stiffed us to create jobs in Eurabia and build their own new engine design.
Everything that happens to EADS/Airbus is richly deserved.
As for the A400M military transport, which many in our media and the opposition parties have in effect been touting as a true competitor for the C-17s (CC-177 now for the Canadian Air Force) and C-130Js the government is buying (contract actually signed for CC-177s), consider this from Aviation Week and Space Technology, Feb. 26 (text subscriber only):
“…the Airbus Military A400M…project continues to experience delays. The latest setback involves flight testing of the first TP400-D6 turbofan, which has slipped to the summer from the end of March, according to aircraft and engine-maker representatives…
French government officials are keeping a close eye on the A400M. Francois Lureau, chief executive of the French armaments agency (DGA), suggests it’s impossible to predict at this point whether the contractual commitment can be met by industry. Clearly, there’s no margin left in the program, he notes. France should be the first A400M recipient, with deliveries slated to begin in October 2009.
The U.K. government publicly maintains it will have an operational capability in 2011; but within the military, there’s little confidence that this date can be held.
In recent weeks, Airbus has revealed slight changes in the A400M plan, including a decision to potentially delay start of final assembly of the first flight aircraft by up to three months…”
Mark
Ottawa
There is a very real possibility Airbus will go bankrupt.
Geez, if Schreiber had only slipped Mulroney a few more bucks, perhaps Airbus could have lined up sufficient extra contracts to avoid layoffs today.
cconn: I am not an expert on this stuff – just what I read – but I fly alot – and Airbus does make very good planes – in fact I feel safer on Airbus than Boeing.”
After working in a technical maintenance career spanning 46 years that encompassed everything from airplanes to fiber optics, I would not feel safer in anything European made.
The American(Canadian) equipment almost always was more reliable in the end. There, of course, were the exceptions, but generally, from electrical terminals that would become brittle with age to process control computers that were not backwards compatible, European is not best.
Government control just doesn’t cut it.
I tend to cringe whenever I read an announcement that our Armed Forces are getting another European made clusterf**k.
The A400M was not, is not, and never will be in the same class as the C-17. Canada, like our cousins in Australia, needs to cross vast oceans (and vast open spaces at home) and the Airbus product was simply too slow and small to do it. If it ever gets built, it may be a good fit for some of the European militairies – suitable for moving APCs around France to put down riots, etc. Seriously though, it is an interesting product that may prove useful, but Canada has a need for big airlift NOW (actually a while ago). We need a policy of buying availble, proven (preferably in battle) military technology. I generally favor US gear, but would be willing to look at interesting European products with a proven track record. As such, I actually like the Leopard 2 idea – it is a great tank from a country that knows tanks, and is significantly cheaper and easier to operate than the M-1. The M-1 is still the better tank, but either would be a quantum leap from the present Leopard 1s, and the Leo uses the same Ammo as the M-1, which is important since we are far liklier to go to war alongside the Americans than anyone else.
holdfast: Actually the A400M was designed for flying from Europe to Africa or the Middle East. See the “Typical Missions” here:
http://www.airbusmilitary.com/missions.html
You’re quite right about its unsuitability as a strategic lifter for Canada with our trans-oceanic and trans-continental requirements.
And at the same time probably too big as a Herc replacement. Piggy (someday) in the middle.
Mark
Ottawa
Gunney99,
You could be right. It could be that the planes are newer additions to the fleets of many airlines.
Also, I want to say that Bombardier’s RJ’s are actually pretty good. I know that between Atlanta and Toronto (especially with Delta) these things are workhorses. I’m normally afraid of flying on small planes but these RJ’s were great. In fact, I felt proud.