Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH
PLANS FOR massive job cuts and a string of plant closures outlined by Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) have raised a chorus of dissent from the German unions. IG Metall, which represents the bulk of DASA's workforce, responded to the announcement with a pledge to use "...all possible measures allowed by law" to persuade DASA to tone down the plan.
Cutbacks have been threatened since DASA first launched its "Dolores" (dollar-low rescue) study earlier this year in response to the financial crisis, which had been caused by the collapse of the US dollar against the mark.
The full extent of the plans was only revealed on 23 October, however, when DASA announced that more than 8,800 jobs will go over the next three years, mainly from the company's aircraft and propulsion groups. DASA says that the Laupheim, Preissenberg and Speyer sites will be sold, while the fate of plants at Ludwigsfelde and Dresden is still undecided.
The government of the Brandenburg region now says that it will do "everything possible" to save the Ludwigsfelde site, which belongs to DASA's aero-engine subsidiary, MTU Munich.
Uwe Neuhaus, who heads the supervisory board at DASA's Airbus site at Bremen, also says that the workforce "...will not accept" proposals for 1,000 job losses and threatens to "escalate" its resistance.
DASA says that the proposal will now be subject to negotiations with both unions and politicians before a final outline of the measures to be implemented is presented on 20 November.
DASA says that its target is to return to the black in 1998 with a modest profit of DM350 million ($250 million). Before the dollar crisis, DASA had hoped to turn profits of more than DM1 billion within the next three years.
See News Analysis, P25.
Source: Flight International
