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Awwww - couldn't happen to a nicer company

From the Seattle Post--Intelligencer again:

Airbus to shed 10,000 jobs, sell plants in bid to halt slide
Airbus, steadily losing its market lead to Boeing Co., unveiled drastic plans Wednesday to follow in its U.S. rival's footsteps by cutting thousands of jobs, selling off manufacturing sites and outsourcing more work to external suppliers.

Strikes and protests greeted the European planemaker's long-awaited announcement that it intends to shed 10,000 staff and sell, close or spin off six plants, as it struggles to survive the crippling fallout from a two-year delay to its A380 superjumbo and the weaker U.S. dollar.

"We are doing what other companies have done, but we're a bit late," Airbus Chief Executive Louis Gallois said as he presented the "Power8" restructuring strategy to reporters.

And this line really surprised me:

Gallois is also seeking partners to back a belated push into carbon-fiber composite technologies by investing in three other Airbus sites that produce fuselage and wing parts: Meaulte in northern France, Nordenham in Germany and Filton in Britain.

Not into composites yet -- these have been proven superior and have been on the market for a decade or more. Just shows what a heavily top-down management style, balkanized factories in different nations and heavy EU subsidy will do for a company. Posted by DaveH at February 28, 2007 9:54 PM | TrackBack