Airbus workers throughout Europe
have reacted with anger to the announcement on 28 February of the axing of
10,000 jobs at its plants in Europe as part of
its "Power 8" plan. Following the announcement, Airbus workers responded with
walk-outs which stopped production on 1 and 2 March in the Nordenham, Varel,
and Laupheim factories in Germany.
There were also stoppages in France
including at the St. Nazaire plant on west coast of France. On 6 March, French
factories in Toulouse, Méaulte, St. Nazaire, and
Nantes shut
down as workers marched in the streets. The press have reported that 1,500
marched in Méaulte and around 15,000 in Toulouse.
Support for the strike was solid with over 90% out.
Of the 10,000 job cuts, 1,100 jobs will be lost at Airbus Headquarters in Toulouse, 3,200 will be lost in the rest of France, 3,700 in Germany, 400 in Spain, and 1,600 in the UK. Around 5,000 of these job losses will be temporary or on-site contractors where the cuts have already started. Airbus manufacture aircraft parts all over Europe, and the planes are finally assembled either in Toulouse or Hamburg. One part of the Power 8 plan is to outsource as much manufacturing capacity as possible to drive down costs, that is to exploit their workers further, in order to increase profits.
The announcement follows extensive discussions between national governments. President Chirac of France met with German Chancellor Merkel the weekend before the announcement to discuss the job cuts. Alistair Darling, the UK Trade and Industry Secretary, was reported to have threatened Airbus with the loss of military orders if the cuts in the UK were too deep. Thus the bourgeois politicians jostle among themselves to secure the best deal for their individual national capitalist class. Reacting to the Power 8 announcement on 28 February, the leading Airbus governments all welcomed the news while shedding crocodile tears at the job losses in their respective countries. Darling said, "The long-term future for Airbus in the UK is a good one". French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin called the plan "necessary" and added that the French Government would give €100m in aid to Airbus. Chancellor Merkel has also publicly supported the plan.
Although at the time of writing, the details are still unclear, it appears that the 1,600 jobs lost in the UK will be shared between Filton near Bristol, which manufactures parts for wings, fuel systems and landing gear, and the plant at Broughton in North Wales that assembles wings for Airbus aircraft. Airbus, like the other main aircraft manufacturer Boeing, wishes to move from aircraft built from metal to aircraft using composite carbon fibre. The assembly line at Broughton is designed to make metal wings. No investment was announced for Broughton to enable the factory to assemble composite wings and therefore the long-term future of the plant is not assured. A second, smaller part of Filton that designs wings will be largely unaffected.
In addition to the job cuts, Airbus Management have announced their intention to focus on "core business", in other words to contract out activities that are not considered to be core. At three plants, Filton, Méaulte (France) and Nordenham (Germany), Airbus will seek "industrial partnerships" and have apparently already received unsolicited approaches from potential partners. For example, press reports have mentioned that GKN of the UK is understood to be interested in Filton, presumably with the intent of purchasing it from Airbus. Airbus have also made clear their intention to sell off or even close factories at three other sites at Varel, Laupheim (both in Germany), and St. Nazaire-Ville (France).
Airbus currently have a backlog of orders of 2,700 aircraft, which is enough work for years without any other future orders. Business for airlines is booming and new aircraft are in heavy demand. So what has gone wrong at Airbus? Tom Enders, the joint-CEO of EADS, Airbus's parent company, admitted a few days ago that "serious management mistakes were made". The costs of producing the new Airbus A380 aircraft, the "super-jumbo" have soared owing to management blunders. Another new type of Airbus aircraft, the A350, is needed to compete with Boeing's new "Dreamliner", the B787. But the A350 has to be redesigned, because of further management errors, which has meant both that its development costs have risen and that it will not be available for years. This has allowed Boeing to capture the market with the B787 which is ready just about now. Under capitalism, Airbus's workers are now being asked to pay the price for their management's incompetence.
There is no doubt that Airbus is also planning to move some of their production to factories outside Europe. A manufacturing plant outside Beijing will be completed later this year when it will produce Airbus parts and later assemble whole aircraft. There have been press reports that President Putin of Russia is interested in a similar deal. Airbus's only real rival is Boeing of the US and it is no accident that global politics and the competition for markets by each national bourgeoisie impact on the future of Airbus. Both the Russians and the Chinese are looking to Europe to assist their own indigenous aircraft manufacturing industries and to help provide their airlines with badly needed planes, while not wanting to rely on the US to do so.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the right-wing French Presidential candidate, said, when the job losses were first announced, that the state should not interfere in Airbus. Having now seen the reaction of the French people, he has now cynically changed his mind and is now calling for increased French Government influence in the company, presumably to protect jobs in France at the expense of jobs elsewhere in Europe. Workers throughout Airbus regardless of their nationality need to reject such reactionary manoeuvres. It is only by uniting across frontiers that the Power8 plan can be defeated.
There is now talk of a European day of action on 16 March. The trade unions should aim to organise action on that day across the whole of Airbus in opposition to Power8. Airbus's Management, while admitting order books are full, are concerned at the consequences of strike action - a clear sign they are worried. The advisors to capital, the corporate analysts, have expressed doubts whether the projected cost savings can be made given the lack of detail given by Airbus's management and the reaction of the unions. The battle against Power8 can be won with a determined fight by workers and their leaders. In order to win the war and not just the battle, it is necessary for Airbus to be nationalised under workers' control and management and for capitalism itself to be abolished.