Airbus wants to reorganize its aircraft production, company parts could be sold. Implementation has already been postponed following resistance from IG Metall. Now the conflict is escalating.
With all-day warning strikes at Airbus, IG Metall wants to paralyze production at all of the aircraft manufacturer’s German locations from Thursday.
“Some work stoppages are planned over several shifts and days,” the union announced on Wednesday in Hamburg. The IG Metall negotiator, Daniel Friedrich, wants to speak to delegates from all German locations in front of the factory gate in Hamburg-Finkenwerder that morning.
Strikes in Varel, Nordenham and Augsburg
Warning strikes are planned for Thursday at the locations of the Airbus subsidiary Premium Aerotec in Varel and Nordenham in Lower Saxony and in Augsburg. They should last until Saturday. From Friday to Sunday, the workforce from Airbus Operations in Hamburg and Stade will join them. A one-day warning strike is planned for Friday at Airbus and Premium Aerotec in Bremen.
The background to this is the conflict, which has been simmering since the spring, over the restructuring of civil aircraft production planned by the Airbus management. IG Metall and Airbus have now spoken in five rounds of negotiations about the conditions for the conversion, without any result from the union’s point of view. “If we do not come to a solution in a timely manner, we will run into a major conflict,” threatened Friedrich on Wednesday.
“Inappropriate and disrespectful”
The aircraft manufacturer reacted with sharp words: In one of the letters to the workforce from the dpa, Group boss Guillaume Faury called the IG Metall’s approach “inappropriate and disrespectful”. In the conflict, the company had already given “many guarantees with regard to safety, working conditions and investments in the future”, so that there was “no serious reason to date” for the renewed warning strikes.
In April, Airbus announced its intention to sell parts production at the Premium Aerotec subsidiary in Augsburg, in Varel in Frisia and in Romania to an investor. Otherwise, tough restructuring measures threatened with significant effects on employment. In addition, Airbus wants to combine the assembly of aircraft fuselages and structures in a new subsidiary. The Airbus plants in Stade, parts of the Hamburg location and the Airbus subsidiary Premium Aerotec with three of the four Augsburg plants and the Bremen and Nordenham locations would be affected.
13,000 employees affected
In total, around 13,000 employees are likely to be affected by the plans at Airbus Operations and Premium Aerotec. IG Metall wants to prevent a split. Promises made by Airbus so far are not enough for the union. With the works councils, she is primarily demanding employment guarantees at all locations that will extend into the next decade.
Source From: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
