James Warren
AEROSPACE manufacturer Airbus is under pressure after news emerged of a worker’s strike Thursday in protest of massive job cuts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The European plane manufacturer announced last week that it will cull 15,000 jobs worldwide – 1,600 of them in Spain.
According to the manufacturer, the cuts will ensure the future of Airbus after it was drastically hit by the pandemic.
The redundancies will be split between their commercial division and their defense consortium which is responsible for the A-400 Atlas and the Eurofighter Typhoon currently in service with the Spanish Air Force.
A protest already took place this week in Getafe on the outskirts of Madrid.
Workers chanted ‘Zero Layoffs’ as they marched from the Airbus manufacturing plant to the Getafe Town Hall.
They demanded more political involvement to revive the industry and safeguard their livelihoods.
More protests are due to be held in the plants in Sevilla, Cadiz and Albacete.
So far in 2020, the aviation giant has recorded losses of €481 million and a slow down in production of up to 40%.
Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury told the German daily Die Welt that he plans to keep plants open across Europe but will scale back production to compensate for lack of demand.
The company was also hit with enormous losses on their huge A380 ‘double decker’ airliner after a monumental drop in orders across the board.
