GERMANY: German Airbus employees in Hamburg are preparing to fight for their future on the eve of restructuring announcements.

Airbus is due to unveil restructuring plans on Wednesday (February 28). Franco-German EADS delayed an announcement last week following a row between shareholders over work share on commercial planemaker Airbus's planned A350 mid-sized aircraft. German Airbus employee Dennis Dlogusch told reporters outside the Airbus plant in Hamburg that "I've got used to getting information from the media but I don't believe it any more. I'm waiting for a definitive answer now." Benjamin Schroeder, arriving for the afternoon shift, said "I don't let myself be influenced." "Tomorrow we'll have the dates and facts regarding the changes and up until then, I won't allow for my life to become more difficult by speculation," Schroeder said. In Stuttgart, the state prime ministers of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Lower Saxony, Guenther Oettinger and Christian Wulff met for an unrelated meeting. Asked to comment on Airbus, Wulff said "EADS Airbus could never have turned into what it is without Germany's clear objectives for civil aviation and certain military decisions," adding "this is about Europe's competiveness." "If we want to become the continent with the world's biggest growth then our goal must be to achieve half of the world market in the aviation and space industry," Wulff said. Both the northern state of Lower Saxony and Baden-Wuerttemberg in the south of the country are home to Airbus plants with a combined workforce of almost 5,000. The French and German governments have called on Airbus to strike a balance in jobs and technological know-how between the countries. Some 10,000 jobs are expected to be cut at Airbus.

ITN Source | February 28, 2007

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