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PARIS - Airbus today postponed a major announcement on job cuts planned for this week, saying European nations could not agree how to share the work on the planemaker's next aircraft, the wide-body A350.
The surprise statement followed a stormy board meeting at parent EADS on Sunday evening at which the group failed to sign off on management's Power8 restructuring plans, seen as crucial to the future of Airbus, a source close to the matter said.
It also exposed continued tensions between the four countries where Airbus plants are based -- Britain, France, Germany and Spain -- as the planemaker's chief Louis Gallois prepares to axe up to 10,000 jobs or a fifth of its workforce.
The unease is felt most deeply in France and Germany, which between them employ 40,000 Airbus workers in 11 factories.
The cost-cutting plans were triggered by delays in the company's A380 superjumbo, which drove Airbus into loss last year and bled cash from EADS.
Analysts said the restructuring would also shape the company's longer-term future as it chooses a site for assembly of the mid-sized A350 "Extra Wide Body", or XWB.
But negotiators appeared to have hit an impasse over the principles for distributing pain and gains in the restructuring.
France wants cuts shared on the basis of "fairness", while Berlin insists on "equality", implying a one-for-one share of job cuts in each country, the source close to the matter said.
"The board meeting got pretty heated," the source added.
The political stakes are high in both countries, with France facing presidential elections in 69 days, and Germany keen to avoid a reversal of the downturn in unemployment that has supported economic growth over the past year.
In a rare act of public brinkmanship, Gallois challenged governments to end recent squabbling and postponed both union and press briefings on the restructuring programme.
"I made proposals which I deem balanced, both from an industrial and a technological point of view, and which serve our objective of economic competitiveness," he said.
"I wish that they can lead to the consensus we urgently need. Airbus cannot delay any longer implementing Power8. Quite naturally, employees are eager to know how the future of their company, together with their own future, is being shaped."
In the same written statement, Gallois said talk would resume in the "next days" on the workload for building the A350.
The timing leaves room for a high-level political settlement between France and Germany. French President Jacques Chirac is due to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday, and they are "very likely" to discuss Airbus, an aide to Chirac said.
At a European Union news conference in Brussels, German Economy Minister Michael Glos said the Airbus restructuring should have "an equal sharing-out, as far as possible".
"It's not as if you have to count every single job but when you look at whether the company can survive into the future and whether individual production sites can survive long-term in future, that should be our main concern."
In a television and radio interview, French Finance Minister Thierry Breton also said any burden should be shared fairly but added the company should be left to take its own decisions.
"All excessive interference ... could be counterproductive," he said.
The A350 is Airbus' answer to the successful Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a fuel-efficient long-range twinjet due to enter service next year. Qatar is a big potential market for the jet.
France and Germany are both keen to assemble the 10 billion euro ($19.1 billion) jet, securing jobs. Airbus employs about 20,000 people each in France and Germany, 3000 in Spain and 12,000 in Britain.
Unions in France and Germany have promised to fight outright job cuts. Last year's delays to the A380 led to bickering between staff in French and German plants over who was to blame.
Airbus has also been roiled by almost two years of management and shareholder disputes, changes in ownership and political tensions as the A380 superjumbo project turned sour.
Various European politicians, including Glos, have warned that EADS defence contracts may hinge on the Airbus compromise.
"It's time to calm the storm. We need to get back to making planes, not politics," said Jean Francois Knepper, a senior official with France's Force Ouvriere union at Airbus.
EADS shares closed up 2.9 per cent at 25.83 euros, despite the postponement, after the Qatar Investment Authority said it was in talks to buy a stake in the aerospace and defence firm.
The French government owns 15 per cent of EADS, French media group Lagardere owns 7.5 per cent, and carmaker DaimlerChrysler defends German interests with voting rights for 22.5 per cent despite loaning the stock to raise cash.
Russia last year bought 5 per cent, roughly equalling Spain's stake, but has been kept at arm's length by core shareholders.
Britain's BAE Systems meanwhile sold a direct stake of 20 per cent in Airbus itself as the A380 crisis unfolded, but Tony Blair's government insists it should keep wing production.
- REUTERS
