German airbus workers on strike

Workers for European aircraft maker Airbus staged a walk off at four of its German production plants late last week.

Travel Insurance News - 10/10/2011

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The action, set into motion by the IG Metall union, came after its head officials and Airbus management failed to reach an agreement following a year and a half of negotiations. Plants in Bremen, Buxtehude, Stade and Hamburg, where work is done on Airbus' A320 narrow-body jets and one other model, were affected by the strike.

According to the union, some 11,000 employees took part in the initial action, which lasted for 90 minutes on Friday. But Airbus says the figure was closer to 4,000.

To avoid further action, IG Metall is offering Airbus an annual productivity gain of two per cent leading up to 2020. The union said it would save the company around €1 billion annually (£865m). But Airbus said that its figures are different, and that the precise numbers should only be revealed during negotiations.

Spokesman for Airbus, Florian Seidel, told reporters that there were no other industries that guaranteed job security in excess of nine years. He said that the company wanted to make sure that German plants remained productive and stayed that way in exchange. However, he noted that, until a deal is reached, Airbus could not guarantee that some jobs wouldn’t be transferred to other company locations.

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