A shake-up at Airbus will slash 10,000 jobs and sell all or part of six factories, French trade union CGT confirmed today, as workers protested and politicians hailed a hard-fought compromise.
Airbus chief executive Louis Gallois outlined steps which will include cutting 5,000 Airbus staff and 5,000 workers contracted from other firms, CGT official Xavier Petrachi said following a meeting with Mr Gallois.
Unions in the two countries to be hardest hit - France and Germany - have threatened strikes and protests should Airbus close plants or force redundancies.
There were protests at Airbus factories in France at Meaulte and St Nazaire and the head of the European works council warned of wider walkouts.
"It will be a (call to) strike but perhaps a strike is not enough. Airbus is following the route of Boeing to more outsourcing," European works council Chairman Jean-Francois Knepper told France's LCI TV before the meeting with Gallois.
The CGT said three plants are to be sold outright, including two at Varel and Laupheim in Germany and one in St Nazaire, France.
Airbus will look for investors to take partial stakes in three more - Filton in England, Nordenham in Germany and Meaulte in France.
Where coveted work will go on Airbus' next new plane, the A350, has also been decided, the CGT said.
The headquarters in Toulouse, France, will assemble the A350 in return for letting the plant in Hamburg, Germany, assemble the successor to the smaller A320 airliner.
Hamburg in the meantime will also get more of the production of the current A320 series, the CGT said.