GERMANY: EADS unit Airbus denies singling out production sites to sell or close, but German employees "very nervous"

EADS planemaking unit Airbus on Wednesday (October 11) denied reports it had already singled out production sites to sell or close but workers at German plants are "very nervous." German Bild newspaper said on Wednesday Airbus wanted to sell five German sites, which would continue to operate as suppliers to Airbus. Detlef Gehrke, chairman of the workers council at the Buxtehude Airbus plant, outside Hamburg, told Reuters Television that "we have roughly 400 employees working here and a large majority of those is very nervous because there are certain fears about the future." "The existence of the plant is at stake and we from the workers council don't even know what the source for this information is," Gehrke said, referring to the Bild reports. A spokeswoman for the group said new Airbus head Louis Gallois was implementing a restructuring plan prepared by predecessor Christian Streiff. "That plan includes big outlines but not the details. It will be object of further study and that will take several weeks," she said. Gehrke said "Mr. Louis Gallois assured us workers council chairmen that if EADS reached decisions the European workers council would be informed first." Airbus said on Tuesday the group's structure needed to be simplified and decisions would be made in the next few months that could lead to job losses among its 55,000 staff. Uncertainty over the future shape of the group intensified after Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying he was in favour of Russia raising its stake in Airbus parent EADS, though he said there were no hostile plans. EADS co-Chief Executive Louis Gallois took over as head of Airbus late on Monday when Christian Streiff resigned after just 100 days in the post. A company spokeswoman said a report on the Web site of La Tribune financial newspaper saying some 10,000 jobs would go as part of a restructuring was "premature." But before leaving to meet managers at the Toulouse headquarters of Airbus, Gallois told Europe 1 radio in Paris: "It will be painful, yes, because there will be job cuts." But he said nothing had yet been decided and there were "several months of study before us before taking decisions."

ITN Source | October 12, 2006

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