Airbus to eliminate 10,000 jobs

TOULOUSE, FRANCE — Troubled plane maker Airbus confirmed 10,000 job cuts and announced plans to sell all or part of six factories Wednesday as workers protested and European politicians hailed a hard-fought compromise.

Airbus Chief Executive Louis Gallois gave a stark vision of a Franco-German company needing to find billions of euros in savings and end nationalist infighting that he deemed “poison.”

“We need to be interested in the future of Airbus, and for that we need to be one integrated company,” he told reporters.

Gallois said Airbus would cut 5,000 employees and 5,000 workers contracted from other firms over the next four years. Some 4,300 jobs in France, 3,700 in Germany, 1,600 in Britain and 400 in Spain are expected to go. Shedding 5,000 of its employees would cut Airbus’ workforce of 55,000 by 9%. That does not include about 3,000 workers at a French factory and two plants in Germany that will be sold.

There were protests at Airbus factories in France, and unions warned of wider walkouts. Hundreds of workers put down tools at the Toulouse headquarters.

The shake-up comes after a two-year delay in delivering the A380 super-jumbo jet and a $6.6-billion decline in expected earnings at Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co.