Today more than ten thousand Airbus employees will take part in protest actions in Hamburg, Bremen, Varel and Laubheim to save their jobs and sites at Airbus. This action day has been called by IG Metall and is supported by many European metalworking trade unions. The aerospace company EADS, in which Airbus plays a dominating role and which has been in a state of crisis since the middle of last year, has been planning a restructuring programme for months entitled Power 8. Details of this programme are due to be presented to the workforce on 20th February. “Today’s demonstrations in Germany mark only the beginning of a possible European-wide wave of protest should the EADS management plan mass layoffs and site closures.”, stated Peter Scherrer , General Secretary of the European Metalworkers’ Federation (EMF).

At present the EMF, together with its European member organisations, is developing a common platform of demands with a view to safeguarding all Airbus sites and jobs. Peter Scherrer emphasised that, “EADS must not only acknowledge their responsibility for their direct employees but also for the thousands of temporary workers and employees in supplier companies, who are affected by the crisis“. The last months have been marked by speculation and massive unrest among the workforce. The European metalworking trade unions therefore demand from EADS a clear commitment in respect of industrial sites in Europe. This should be underscored by technology companies investing in European sites.

The EMF trade union co-ordination group will discuss the common platform of demands on 27th February 2007 in Brussels.

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PRESS 2/2007

The EMF is the representative body defending the interests of workers in the European metal industry. The EMF has a mandate for the external representation and coordination of the metalworkers' unions and a mandate to engage in bargaining at European level.

For further information please contact:

Editor: Peter Scherrer , EMF General Secretary

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