A fresh wave of protests against proposed job cuts at planemaker Airbus is due to take place across Europe.
Staff in France, Germany, the UK and Spain are set to stop work in a co-ordinated series of demonstrations against plans to cut 10,000 jobs.
Unions have mounted regular stoppages since Airbus revealed its radical retrenchment plan earlier this month.
Airbus argues its costs are far too high and must be reduced to speed up production and improve competitiveness.
Anger
It has fallen behind main rival Boeing in terms of new orders and the huge cost of building its new A380 and A350 models is weighing it down.
It is proposing to sell or close three of its 16 European factories and is looking for new investment partners for a further three sites.
Tens of thousands of workers are expected to take to the streets on Friday to vent their anger at the scale of the cuts, designed to save 5bn euros by 2010.
Up to 20,000 people are expected to parade in the centre of Hamburg, where the company's principal German plant is located.
Demonstrations are also planned across France and Spain while several thousand people are expected to meet in the British town of Chester, close to the firm's plant in Broughton.
The European Metalworkers Federation said all its staff belonging to affiliated unions at factories in France and Germany would participate in the action.
"This restructuring plan will have dramatic consequences but is not justified," union leaders from all four affected countries said in a joint statement.
The stoppages are designed to keep the pressure on the firm's management and elicit political support ahead of presidential elections in France next month.
Airbus has pledged not to enforce any compulsory redundancies, saying half the cuts will be made among temporary staff and sub-contractors.
Seems like Airbus is in a bit of trouble, just saw that UPS cancelled orders for something like 10 A380s. I know Fedex cancelled quite a few a while back too...
why europeans countrys dont give some money for Airbus, to let them speed up the building of the aircraft, instead of waiting to see them lost their contracts and wait for job cuts..?
German and French leaders, and others as well, should read the part on Economic Nationalism in the latest report from the European Economic Advisory Group (an independent group of influential researchers).
Cut the subsidies (Sink or swim time)
Drop the A380 (White Elephant)
Drop the A318 (Can't compete against the Brazilians)
Streamline production without regard's to political boundaries.
Focus on the A319, A320, and A321 line.
Get the A400 Future Large Aircraft off the ground. It's an aircraft in high demand.
Get the A350 off the ground.
Talk with Embraer for some joint venture and marketing.
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Airbus protests due across Europe
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