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ARCHIVED - Angry protests in Cádiz over the likely closure of the Airbus plant in Puerto Real
The crisis in the civil aviation sector due to Covid threatens jobs in the Bay of Cádiz
Approximately 800 demonstrators gathered on Wednedsay to protest against the reported plans of Airbus to close its plant in Puerto Real, close to the city of Cádiz, due to the sharp drop in the consortium’s workload which has been exacerbated during the coronavirus pandemic.
No official announcement has been made but alarm bells began ringing in Cádiz in February, when the operations manager of the Civil Division of Airbus, Michael Schöllhorn, stated that the Puerto Real factory was “not competitive”, and the fact that the company has another plant run by the Aerospace and Defence divisions not far away in El Puerto de Santa María has led many to the conclusion that the Puerto Real plant’s days are numbered.
The demonstrators on Wednesday were demanding that the plant remain open and their jobs be maintained, both at the factory itself or in the numerous companies providing ancillary services. Not only did they cause serious disruption to local traffic, but also chose to draw attention to their protests by starting tyre bonfires and creating large palls of black smoke, while others threw stones as they gave vent to their anger.
Unfortunately, one of the fires spread to a pine grove and required the attention of firefighters, for which the demonstration organizers apologized: 2,500 square metres of land were affected.
The workers maintain that orders are still pending with Airbus for “thousands” of aircraft due to be delivered when the coronavirus pandemic abates, although of course it is uncertain how long it will take for the aviation sector to recover from the prolonged bans on international travel which have decimated tourism over the last 15 months. Representatives are threatening strike action if their demands are not met, and at the march on Wednesday they were joined by the Mayors of Cádiz and Puerto Real.
In addition, support is being sought from the regional government of Andalucía and the national government as those affected seek to defend not only their own jobs but also, in their words, the economic interests of the Bay of Cádiz. Elena Amaya, the Mayoress of Puerto Real, points out that the government of Spain holds 4.6 per cent of the shares of Airbus, and that if public funds are being spent to save the sector the local plant should be given priority status.
Among the work performed in Puerto Real is the production of parts for the A350 XWB, A330 and A320 aircraft, and until 2019 it was home to the final assembly and testing of the horizontal stabilizer for the A380. But in both of the last two years the consortium has reported significant overall losses, while in the commercial aircraft division a profit of 1,794 million euros in 2019 was almost completely wiped out by a 1,330-million-euro loss in 2020.
Covid threatens to de-stabilise the future of the aeronautical industry and it is currently impossible to predict how much impact not only the pandemic, but also growing pressure to reduce air traffic due to its emissions and effect on the climate, will change the sector in the short-term.
This has led both the president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, and the government minister María Jesús Montero, to intimate that the closure of the factory can be assumed, although Sra Montero adds that she is lobbying the consortium to ensure that staff are re-deployed rather than being made redundant.
In this context it is reported that Michael Schöllhorn is studying ways in which 280 workers can be re-located, although trades unions maintain that this would leave a further 100 jobless after the closure. The company is reported to be planning to communicate its plans next Wednesday, while a strike is planned in all of the group’s plants in Spain for Friday 23rd April.
Images: UGT Airbus Puerto Real