=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2007/02/28/financial/= f030232S42.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, February 28, 2007 (AP) Airbus Faces Clash Over Planned Job Cuts By LAURENCE FROST, AP Business Writer (02-28) 03:02 PST PARIS, France (AP) -- Airbus, seeking to reverse its fortunes after a crushing year, faced a bruising battle Wednesday in presenting a plan expected to include massive job losses across Europe and the sale of a number of plants. Already enraged employees have begun to protest the plans. Workers at Airbus' factory in Meaulte in northern France blocked production Wednesday ahead of the plan's announcement, said Frederic Homez of the FO Metaux union. The action was not an organized strike and it was not immediately clear how many of the plant's 1,700 workers took part. Airbus parent EADS unanimously approved the "Power8" restructuring plan Monday, ending a week-long dispute between French and German shareholders. The next day, the European aircraft maker's main French labor union called the cutbacks "a declaration of war," workers staged walkouts and threatened wider strikes. Airbus management is to present the plan to staff representatives Wednesday before releasing it publicly at its headquarters in Toulouse in southern France. The plan will lead to about 10,000 job losses among Airbus staff and subcontractors, a person close to the company said. Airbus currently employs about 56,000 workers. About 4,300 of the job cuts will be made in France, 3,900 in Germany, 1,000-1,500 in Britain and 500 in Spain, said the person, who asked not to be named because the plans were still confidential. First announced last year after a two-year production delay to the double-decker A380 wiped $6.6 billion off profit forecasts for 2006-2010, the Power8 program aims to claw back the same figure in cost reductions over the period and generate $2.8 billion in annual savings in later years. Airbus has been badly hit by the weakness of the U.S. dollar — the currency in which its planes are priced — and is expected to shift more of its supplier costs and contract work to dollar-linked economies as part of the restructuring. It also has to fund development of the A350, its $15.3 billion answer to the runaway success of U.S. rival Boeing Co.'s 787 in the lucrative market for long-range, mid-sized planes. Airbus will seek buyers for its Meaulte and Saint-Nazaire-Ville producti= on sites in France, Germany's Nordenham and Varel plants and the Filton site in Britain, the person said. The company is seeking investors to run the sites as subcontractors on Airbus jet programs but may be forced to close the Saint-Nazaire plant, which employs 900 workers. Staff at the Meaulte facility, which makes nose cones for Airbus airline= rs of all sizes, staged a stoppage on Tuesday to protest the anticipated cuts. Almost all the plant's 1,700 workers took part in the spontaneous strike, Airbus confirmed. Officials from Airbus unions in France, Germany, Britain and Spain met in Brussels on Tuesday and warned of bigger strikes. Force Ouvriere, the strongest Airbus union in France, said closures in France would be seen as "a declaration of war." Airbus Chief Executive Louis Gallois had been forced to postpone the restructuring announcement, originally scheduled last week, and propose changes after the main EADS shareholders failed to agree on the distribution of job cuts and new technologies between France and Germany. Core German shareholder DaimlerChrysler AG's 22.5 percent share of voting rights is matched by the combined EADS stake held by the French government and Paris-based Lagardere SCA. Unlike the French state, Berlin has no direct stake in the company but leans heavily on decision-making as its largest single defense customer. German Economics Minister Michael Glos, who earlier this month said EADS could lose defense contracts if it cut too many jobs in the country, said in Brussels that the final version of the plan appeared to spread the burden of cuts equally. Under the plan, final assembly of the A350 will be based exclusively in France, the person close to Airbus and a German official familiar with the discussions both said — instead of being split between Germany and France as programs traditionally have been. In exchange, a future revamp of the single-aisle A320 plane will be assembled in Germany. --------------= -------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2007 AP