Union: Airbus to Sell 2 French Sites

[AngryAmish]

"PARIS - Airbus has confirmed that it plans to sell two French manufacturing sites, a union official said Wednesday, as employees staged work stoppages to protest expected job losses and other restructuring measures to be announced later in the day.

Airbus managers told unions that plants at Meaulte and Saint-Nazaire-Ville, which together employ more than 2,000 workers, are earmarked for sale under the European aircraft maker's "Power8" restructuring plan, said the official. He asked not to be named because the discussions were still under way.

Airbus also was to announce plans to sell two German Airbus sites, Nordenham and Varel, as part of a production overhaul that will cut about 10,000 jobs among its staff and subcontractors, a person close to the company told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Approximately 4,300 of the job cuts will be made in France, 3,900 in Germany, 1,000 to 1,500 in Britain and 500 in Spain, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the plans were still confidential. Airbus currently employs about 56,000 people.

The Meaulte plant in northern France, which produces the front fuselage sections for Airbus planes, ground to a halt Wednesday as workers walked out to await news of the restructuring measures."

[Hunky Dunky]

1. Strategic Blunders

They pegged their production to the U.S. dollar. They can't compete with Boeing in just about any facet at all. They gambled on the ultra bemoth-sized plane and the market is not heading in that direction. They're doomed.

[JCMach1]

2. Market is actually... they screwed over the customers with false promises

they didn't have the engineering to pull it off. Result-customers are bailing.