Airbus Strike!

The major industry in Toulouse is aeronautics, primarily all things related to Airbus. Airbus has been experiencing a number of problems with the delivery of its latest jet, the A380. This combined with the lack of a competitor (until recently) to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been a big hit to the bottom line of Airbus and it's parent company EADS. So after much delay and a big meeting between Jacques Chirac and Angela Merkel, EADS finally announced their restructuring plan , Power 8, that will trim costs (and jobs) while boosting efficiency (i.e. profit). The bottom line for France is that several factories may be sold/closed and roughly 4,000 people laid-off/fired (of a total of 10,000 layoffs distributed amongst the Airbus partner countries).



This week there was a one day work stoppage and demonstration in the streets of Toulouse. As I'm currently in the midst of my own 1-year work stoppage, I went to witness the events and take some pictures. According to the French newspaper le Monde, no less than 10,000 people were thought to have participated. All in all, I thought the demonstration was pretty tame (even my Airbus friend who himself marched called it "calm"). This huge mass of people weaved their way through the heart of the city to the main square in front of city hall. To my surprise, city hall had a large banner (see top photo) proclaiming, "Toulousans with Airbus and it's Partners".



There was some speeches about the demands of the workers (keeping work in Toulouse, not closing factories, no layoffs, & protecting the French aerospace industry being the principle ones). It'll be interesting to see how this issue plays out in the coming French presidential elections. The left-leaning candidate has pledged to stop the layoffs is she's elected. Whatever happens, the demonstration definitely got a lot of attention. And after reading about various strikes and demonstrations, I finally got to witness my very first one!