EADS presses ahead with transformation of German maintenance subsidiary despite opposition from union
EADS's German maintenance subsidiary Aircraft Services Lemwerder (ASL) has performed its final civil aircraft work as it begins a controversial transformation into a military component workshop and Eurofighter production facility.
EADS took a 51% stake in ASL in January and announced plans to phase out civilian maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activity by August. The move was opposed by metalworkers' union IG Metall, which accused EADS of centralising civilian maintenance at French subsidiary EADS Sogerma.
The Lemwerder site completed work on an Airbus A310 on 23 July and the adjacent airfield was decommissioned last week. EADS-ASL is managed by the company's Military Aircraft division and the facility will become sole supplier of Eurofighter Typhoon rear fuselage section three panels, which are now produced at EADS sites in Augsberg and Bremen. The site will also become the rotable parts overhaul and supply centre for all EADS military types, including the Panavia Tornado.
About two-thirds of ASL's 700 employees lost their jobs because of the restructuring, but around 200 of these were able to take positions at Airbus Deutschland elsewhere in Germany. The 180 staff being retained will be retrained ahead of jig, tooling and machinery deliveries scheduled for mid-September, when production is planned to start, says EADS Military Aircraft.
ASL has long cross-subsidised civilian work with military, and EADS forerunner Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) initially planned to close the uncompetitive ASL in 1993 before the Lower Saxony state government intervened. IG Metall says it presented EADS with various plans to retain civilian MRO activity at the site, but claims EADS preferred to shift all non-military work to Bordeaux-based Sogerma Services.
EADS says these claims are untrue, not least because Sogerma does not now offer full MRO activities and has no plans to do so. EADS Military Aircraft also says it found economic flaws in the models presented by the union. "What they claim has to be proven by reality," it adds. No buyer has come forward to acquire the civilian activities or the airfield since January - "not even for one symbolic euro", it says.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE / LONDON
Source: Flight International
