IG Metall is increasing the pressure on the company in the dispute over the restructuring of the aviation group Airbus. Before the start of collective bargaining, the union is demanding a social collective agreement that is intended to cushion the consequences it feared. If the management does not move significantly, IG Metall wants to organize warning strikes at short notice.
In the spring, Airbus announced that it would bundle the Premium Aerotec subsidiary with parts of the Airbus factories and transfer them to a new company that produces structural components for the aircraft. Small parts production, which employs around 4,000 people, is to be outsourced to a separate company and sold. IG Metall has not rejected all plans in principle, but wants guarantees for work on future aircraft models. “We have not received any acceptable proposals,” said Daniel Friedrich, district manager of IG Metall coast.
In the social wage agreement, the union demands severance payments of 25,000 euros plus three monthly salaries for those whose jobs are lost, further training programs over two years and a hardship fund. The agreement is to have a term of twelve years.
Airbus has again declared the construction of fuselage structures to be an absolute core business and therefore also finally discarded the former sales plans for Premium Aerotec and the French Stelia Aerospace. However, the German offshoot in particular is struggling with high costs and produces small parts that would be cheaper elsewhere. Management argues that the conversion is necessary because the fuselage will play an even more important role in future generations of aircraft, and because it will make costs more transparent.
Airbus General Works Council Chairman Holger Junge believes the neuralgic point is to secure sufficient work packages for the next generation of aircraft. He expects a decision to be made within the next two to three years and a new model in 2030. Airbus itself is not aiming for 2035.
The conflict hits the company at an inopportune time. Because in the meantime, Airbus is ramping up production of short and medium-haul aircraft again. As early as the fourth quarter, 44 machines per month are to be delivered, at the beginning of 2023 as many as 63. The A320neoSeries is currently the only profitable series among Airbus civil aircraft, warning strikes here would have massive economic consequences. It is therefore clear to CFO Dominik Asam: “We need an amicable solution.”