European airplane manufacturer Airbus could cut up to 12,000 jobs in a long-awaited restructuring plan, whose release was postponed yesterday for a few days, reports said.
Speculation about the so-called "Power 8" restructuring plan, which aims to save 5 billion euros (US$6.6 billion) by 2010, has unsettled labor leaders and politicians in France and Germany.
Les Echos business daily said Airbus Industrie could axe 10,000 to 12,000 jobs, including 3,000 to 4,000 each in France and Germany.
The daily said the cuts would involve the 30,000 people employed by Airbus subcontractors as well as the 55,000 Airbus employees around Europe.
La Tribune daily said the plan could affect up to 10,000 jobs and that three factories would close: Meaulte in France and Varel and Nordenham in Germany.
The plan creates specialized assembly sites, with the successor to the A320 in Hamburg, Germany, and the future A350 and the A380 jets remaining in the French city of Toulouse, the papers said.
Airbus chief executive Louis Gallois was to have revealed the Power 8 plan today.
On top of the immediate savings, Gallois also wants to save US$2 billion a year after 2010 as the company sees Boeing Co soar ahead in plane sales and Airbus struggles to compensate for cost overruns from delays to its A380 superjumbo.
The weakness of the US dollar has also hurt the competitiveness of Airbus.
The plan was to have been discussed at an Airbus works committee, which allows for consultations between management and European unions, before Gallois made it public at a press conference.
Airbus management announced the broad outlines of the plan in October and has been fine-tuning details since.
"The atmosphere is becoming more and more tense," a union source said on Friday as the release of the plan approached.
The French CGT union at Airbus parent company EADS has called for workers to mobilize today to denounce what it called a "gigantic transnational reorganization."
Airbus has warned there will be job losses, carried out according to age considerations as well as through a reduction in part-time and short-term employment.
It also hopes to save 30 percent in operating costs. It is expected to tighten management structure for subsidiaries in France, Germany, Spain and Britain and to streamline certain administrative functions.
A greater reliance is also foreseen on sub-contractors for activities that are not part of the core Airbus operation. Sources have said the plan would reduce internal production from 65 percent to 50 percent.
In addition, some of the 16 European sites could be closed or sold under changes in the distribution of production tasks in Europe.
German workers, who fear they will bear the brunt of the reorganization, are especially anxious about the fate of a plant in Hamburg, which has been held partially responsible for production problems with the A380.
Unconfirmed reports said some of the work on the A380 could be transferred to Toulouse.
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