Airbus expects unions to target A320 FAL in Alabama (flightglobal.com)

March 26, 2015

Airbus already has developed a strategy to counter an internally expected move by labour unions to organize the A320 final assembly line that opens later this year in Alabama.

“I don’t think there’s any question that organised labour will want to try to approach our employees there,” Alan McArtor, chairman and chief executive of the US-based Airbus Group Inc., tells Flightglobal in an interview.

Airbus selected the Brookley Field complex in Mobile, Alabama, in July 2012 to establish the A320 programme’s fourth final assembly line, joining facilities in Toulouse, Hamburg and Tianjin. Added “labour flexibility”, compared to the company’s European sites, was given as one reason for the decision at the time, but Airbus also has said the US line can help improve its balance sheet by delivering aircraft closer to a growing list of customers in North America.

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Tags: Airbus, Boeing, IAM, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, organising