Airbus to announce major job cuts

BBC News

heard on the news today that they're cutting 1,000 jobs from hamburg and that more cuts will take place in france than in germany. a friend was a contractor for airbus. he jumped ship last year.

Well Boeing is hiring. Obviously people will have to move more than 10 km from where they were born to take Boeing jobs. Europeans have no aversion to that right?

And the announcement has now been made, 10,000 jobs to go with the split as below.


More worrying is the following statement . . .

bummer!
waiting to hear from a mate in Bristol that I can finally uncross my fingers

I meant to look for a thread on this earlier - good luck to all the TT'ers that are currently working for/with the Airbus project. Bit of a shitty few days for Europe's finances to be honest.

I wonder...is 'firing' the only solution top management can think of?

Don't think so, after all a large part of the people on this board are Europeans and a lot further than 10km from home.

@grip

The delays are costing Billions and the extremely weak dollar means that the orders that are in are worth considerable less than forecast. What is your solution? I'm really waiting to hear this one...

The fact that the whole project is so politically embroiled means that the cuts have to be deeper now than could have been if management could act in a timely way.

Yes, I feel sorry for individuals and families affected and yes I would like this to affect the senior managers too who have responsibility for this mess - but grow up, welcome to the world.

Jono, agreed... navigating the way through politics is tough but thats exactly the kind of problem the management should solve.
The warning signs were there for a long time...since Rolls Royce engine delivery delays in 2000 (?).
With more than 100 orders even before the first roll-out Airbus looked good. And today it has to come to this!

At the weekend I was talking to a (youngish - well relative to me) friend who works
at Airbus in Hamburg - I believe assembling the A320 family.

He was saying that they were supposed to deliver more aircraft this year with fewer staff
and hes massing up the overtime and sees no way out.

Yes, yes, obviously. It's hyperbole meant to point out that most Europeans, or at least Germans in particular, aren't willing to move very far for work.

Really, why are there so many foreigners in Germany then, if they're not prepared to move for work, why are there so many east europeans working in Britain and Ireland. Why are so many people working in Munich who don't originate from here? Or are these a different kind of European? This is quite a claim coming from someone who comes from a country where a large proportion of the population don't even have a passport.

I made no mention of relocating internationally. Just a few hundred km would suffice in most cases. On the whole this is uncommon enough in Germany to be a problem. But you disagree?

If Germans, on the large, were inclined to relocate for work then the unemployment rate would be almost evenly distributed across the country right? It's not even remotely close to an even share geographically. 60% of Eastern Germans who are employable are actually employed. A full 2/3rds of unemployed Germans are unwilling to relocate for a new job (full article). Much of the reason US unemployment is so much lower than it is in Germany is because Americans are more willing to move. Say what you will of it at the social level, it's good for the economy. Fortunately for Germany the young are showing more willingness to relocate for work.


Don't be a dick. My biggest criticism of my fellow countrymen is that they don't travel abroad enough. But they certainly travel extensively within the US (there's a rather lot to see) and are usually quite willing to relocate for employment. If the US weren't the 3rd largest nation in terms of population and area (especially habitable, it's beaten out only by Russia and Canada in size, both with vast expanses of unfriendly terrain) it would be a different story. And while I'm sure more Brits do have passports, going to resorts in Greece and Spain with English menus and English patrons hardly counts as world traveling. Same goes for Germans who've done no more than stints into Austria, Italy, etc. It's especially puzzling as all of Europe is right fucking there! You can travel from London to Paris or Brussels in the time it take many Americans just to get to an airport!

Everybody should travel more, especially people from big countries.

Yes I do, I can only go on the evidence of my own experience, which is that at the company I work at the guy next to me comes from Regensburg, the guy I'm working for at the moment comes from Hessen, my normal boss is an Austrian, as are a lot of guys here. I share a room with another guy who comes from Passau, another who comes from Hamburg and another who comes from Russia. At my previous job it was the same story. In the street were I live , my next door neighbour comes from the Bayerischewald, the neighbours across the road come from Mannheim and another from Hamburg. I share a lift to work 2 days a week with a guy from near Heidelberg. I travel down the Autobahn to Munich most days and a huge amount of cars doing the same have registrations from Kehlheim, Regensburg, Cham and other places a good distance from Munich. There are always people who won't chase jobs, that's why there are loads of people standing around on street corners doing nothing in Detroit, where the unemployment rate is almost double the national rate. But perhaps the people in Detroit aren't Americans. Oh and if you can't reply without personal insults don't bother replying at all.

This Airbus boss layoff speech is all blah. The layoffs will never happen. The strikes have already started in France and Germany. The strikes will stop the planes being made, costing even more billions in late delivery penalties let alone lost sales. So more governments’ money will be shovelled in. I know I am stating the obvious with the following but this is mainland Europe not North America.

Really? Can vouch for 2 contractors who haven't had their contract extended and don't know if they will be in work next week.

Yes really, the strikes have only just started so need some time for Airbus to feel the bite. I was talking about the big picture but in reference to your comments on two individual contractors then all I can say is - that’s part of being a contractor. Contractors often arrive at a job without a contract even being signed yet. So what.

Totally crap...my cousin was just recently employed by them, packed up everything ...moved to France, finally has everything over and is now waiting to hear what will happen to him and his job.

I totally agree, that it is unsustainable for the company to pay this large number of employees, there have to be job cuts..however on the other side of the coin - why did they hire new staff in the first place, a problem like this one is not a problem that suddenly appears overnight. I also, seeing as how overworked the current staff are and judging by the fact that a lot of Airbus' problems appear to be at least to some degree because they aren't meeting order requests on time and thus loosing orders, don't understand how this is going to be a solution in the long run?! Yes, current costs will be down but how will they finish their work any faster, be able to meet demand if it increases and so increase the profit in the long run?!

I'm not an expert on the matter, so hoping not to get 'told-off' for my comments. Just my thoughts!

Also re Germans not moving for jobs, I have no idea how that opinion was formed but my experience has taught me the opposite, everytime I worked in Frankfurt for example, I would say only 10% of my colleagues were actually from that state, let alone that city. Everyone was from somewhere else in the country and only there because that's where they found work. I can however also understand that sometimes people dont want to do that all the time, as it is not only the individuals life which is affected, their partners/spouses, children if they have them are also always uprooted and have to settle somewhere else + my cousin being the perfect example, having found work and moved to another country for it he may now shortly afterward loose it again and have to start over, the gypsy life can be rather tiring and lonely...dont you think?

Just saw in the papers that they are also stopping production of the Cargo ver. of the A380 as well...
O'well, looks like EADS/Airbus are going to hell in a hand basket...

I have moved a dozen times and I now reside 2 kilometres from where I was born and raised. In the words of the immortal Lord Vader, "The circle is now complete."

There are advantages and disadvantes to mobility. I reckon its the same for staying put. Do what's best with regards to the situation.

France ready to back cash for Airbus - see Reuter's link

http://www.reuters.com/article/tnBasicIndu...05?pageNumber=1

That's very nice for our French comrades but we have been told to take a week off and are now working reduced hours as our company's budget runs out this week.

(Yes, before you jump in with both feet JD, that is the life of a contractor.)

It's ironic. The article mentions how the French gov. stepped in and saved Alstom's French employees' jobs (at the expense of Brits) and now they're going to step in and save Airbus' French emloyees at the expense of Germans & Brits. I worked for Alstom in the UK but saw the light just in time. A lot of people didn't.

Receiving CV's now on an almost hourly basis from people looking for a job after being laid off at Airbus Hamburg

If it wasn’t for our French comrades there wouldn’t be any Airbus period. Britain sold out to the Americans when they chose the 707 over the VC10. Some people said some backhanders took place but I don’t know anything about that. Also if I wasn’t happy being a contractor I wouldn’t just whinge about it I would find another occupa-tion.

Nobody is whinging JD ffs

It's just a shit situation at the moment that's all !

Exactly. It was a response to "there won't actually be any job cuts". There already has been.

My point was I don’t see them laying off the 10 thousand that they announced. Maybe a permo hiring freeze and losses from natural attrition. Obviously some contrac-tors will be laid off but hopefully they will be rehired to make up lost time with some of the strikes or because of man power shortages from a permo hiring freeze.