The country’s leading aerospace giant has today announced more than 1,700 job losses at factories in Wales and Bristol.
Job cuts planned by Airbus include some 1,435 at its plant in Broughton, north Wales, and 295 at Filton, Bristol, the aerospace company has revealed.
The company said it had opened talks on its ‘adaptation plan’, which it unveiled earlier this week in response to the collapse in air travel as a result of the pandemic.
Workers at its plant in North Wales are now set to bear the brunt of the cuts.
Airbus aircraft landing gear is tested at the Airbus aircraft manufacturer’s Filton site
engineer conducts a fatigue test on a Airbus A380 sharklet wing tip on a test rig at the Airbus aircraft manufacturer’s Filton site
A statement said: ‘These figures include integrated corporate functions which support all divisions in the UK.
‘This split reflects the significant impact the Covid crisis has had on the UK’s commercial aircraft manufacturing activities which are concentrated in Broughton.
‘Airbus will continue to meet regularly with its trade union partners in the UK in order to identify solutions that will help us implement this adaptation while minimising the social impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the company.’
The Broughton site makes wings for Airbus.
Peter Hughes, Unite’s Wales regional secretary, said: ‘The level of job losses planned for Broughton are far larger than we originally anticipated and can only bring into crystal-clear focus how urgent the need for UK Government intervention now is.
‘Welsh Government have committed to doing everything they can, but the financial intervention that is now required to support jobs at Broughton can only come from Westminster.
‘Our calls for Boris Johnson’s Government to intervene in the crisis that is engulfing the aerospace sector have so far fallen on deaf ears. They can’t hide anymore, the voices of thousands of workers and their families from across North Wales and north-west England are screaming for help.
‘The governments of France and Germany are already acting to support their aerospace workers. If the UK Government does not do the same then our country’s position as a world leader in the aerospace sector will be consigned to history.’
Daz Reynolds, Unite’s convenor at Broughton, added: ‘Our members at Broughton are devastated to hear of the scale of the job losses for our site.
‘We are a world-class workforce who have built up Broughton to be one of the best manufacturing sites in Europe.
‘The workforce recognises the enormous challenges facing Airbus and are prepared to look at every avenue available to mitigate the proposed job losses.
‘Our position remains that we will not accept one single compulsory redundancy at this site.’
This comes as a union warned the UK’s world-class aerospace industry will be lost forever unless there is urgent action to support the sector through the current crisis.
Unite said its research revealed that almost 12,000 aerospace job losses have been announced in recent months at some of the UK’s biggest companies, including 1,700 by Airbus earlier this week.
The union said it has repeatedly warned that without swift action to support the aerospace industry, more jobs will go on a ‘vast scale’ and the UK’s crown as an industry leader will be ‘stolen’ by competitor countries.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury (left) said the company’s future was at stake after the coronavirus pandemic rocked the air travel industry (right, Philippe Mhun, Executive Vice-President Programmes and Services)
An Airbus employee constructs a wing for an Airbus A350 aircraft at Airbus’ wing production plant near Broughton in north-east Wales
An Airbus A320 plane carrying chief physician Denis Protsenko and a team of doctors of the Novomoskovsky multipurpose medical center for coronavirus patients
A study for the union showed that 102,000 workers are directly employed in the aerospace sector, with many thousands more in indirect employment.
The sector has a turnover of more than £38 billion, generating over £9 billion for the UK economy every year.
Unite said it wanted the UK government to follow the lead of countries such as France and Germany and put in place a programme the sector needs to survive, rebuild and recover.
The global airline industry has been hammered by the impact of coronavirus, with the huge slump in demand for international travel leading to thousands of planes being grounded and staff numbers slashed.
Last month, MPs urged the Government to ‘strongly penalise’ BA for ‘taking advantage’ of the Job Retention scheme by claiming taxpayer subsidies to pay the wages of 23,000 staff, shortly before announcing mass redundancies.
Meanwhile holiday giant Tui is looking to cut up to 8,000 roles worldwide with the firm calling Covid-19 the ‘greatest crisis’ the industry has faced.
Airbus has announced job losses (Ben Birchall/PA)
The UK’s biggest tour operator posted losses of 845.8 million euro (£747m) in the first half of 2020, compared to 289.1 million (£255m) in the same period 12 months previously.
Earlier this week, easyJet announced it expects to lose up to 4,500 jobs across its entire network including around 1,900 UK employees.
Some 727 of its UK-based pilots are at risk of redundancy, equivalent to about one-third of its pilots in the country.
And Ryanair pilots have agreed to a 20 per cent pay cut in a bid to avoid up to 3,000 job losses after boss Michael O’Leary warned the airline would axe roles following a collapse in demand amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Pilots’ union Balpa announced 96 per cent of its members from the firm voted in favour of the temporary slash in wages.