CAPTION: Union open to investor in small parts production at Airbus. (picture alliance / dpa)
IG Metall, the primary metalworkers’ trade union in Germany, is open to the controversial sale of Airbus' small-parts production to an external investor - but only on condition that the aircraft manufacturer simultaneously examines the possibility of remaining part of the Airbus Group. "We are serious in our dealings with investors, we always are, and we are not only so with Airbus," the union's North Germany district manager, Daniel Friedrich, told dpa. "But, of course, we expect Airbus to also seriously examine the other alternative and then not start to threaten further job cuts yet."
He said Airbus had promised to do so during the negotiations on the terms of the planned corporate restructuring, which have been ongoing for months. "Part of the conflict now is that Airbus is not keeping this promise," Friedrich said. "The investor solution is not our solution, but it is our job to deal with it seriously." In return, he said he could expect Airbus to stick to its agreement that the alternative of staying "will then be worked on just as intensively and in parallel," the IG Metall negotiator said. Airbus is currently saying "no comment" on the conflict, which has been accompanied several times by warning strikes.
In fact, Airbus wanted to combine the assembly of aircraft fuselages and structures in a new subsidiary at the beginning of 2022. The Airbus plants in Stade, parts of the Hamburg site, and the Airbus subsidiary Premium Aerotec with three of the four Augsburg plants and the Bremen and Nordenham sites would be affected. In addition, the aircraft manufacturer wants to sell the parts production at Premium Aerotec in Augsburg, in Varel, Friesland, and in Romania to an investor.
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