Airbus will open its plants in Spain on Monday, with the opposition of the unions

The European aerospace consortium Airbus has announced its intention to resume tomorrow, Monday, the activity of the ten of its factories in Spain (including Madrid), "temporarily" halted since last Tuesday to implement prevention measures against the epidemic of the coronavirus, despite the rejection of the unions, which advocate a "staggered" reopening.

The CEO of Airbus, Guillaume Faury, has sent a letter to the workers in which he announced that "on Monday, we will partially restart production and assembly work at our French and Spanish facilities" and urged them: "we will need you at each station where the correct measures have been implemented. "

Faury has admitted the possibility that they may not "welcome everyone on the first day" as some workstations "will take longer to adjust" and that "in the early days, some critical equipment may not be available yet in the required quantity, mainly face masks, "but he assured that they will soon be" ready "and will need each worker" to gradually regain our efficiency with these new processes. "

Spokespersons of the inter-company committee of Airbus in Spain have signaled to Efe this Sunday their rejection of this reopening of the ten Spanish plants, distributed in Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia and in which some 13,000 employees work, and have announced that the Union delegates will halt the activity if the prevention and distancing measures dictated to prevent the coronavirus are not followed.

After recalling that there are "dozens" of positive cases of COVID-19 detected in the Spanish factories of Airbus, the unionists have advocated a "staggered reopening" of these plants, once it is confirmed that they are prepared to face the coronavirus pandemic without danger of contagion for its workers.

The Airbus leader explained in his letter that this aeronautical consortium already has the accumulated experience against the coronavirus in its factories in China and has maintained that, "to weather this crisis", the consortium needs "to protect people against this outbreak and also restore and maintain our operations to a certain level. "

"We put security barriers against COVID-19 as new essential requirements, we adapt our work processes and standards to this new situation, and we gradually restart where we stopped. I want to assure you that no one will be expected to work if it is not safe to do so", The CEO of Airbus has highlighted.

It has also ensured that workstations "have been thoroughly cleaned," that masks "are available" to those who work indoors, and that "adequate stocks of hand sanitizer are available."

"If a workstation does not meet the coronavirus requirements before Monday, it will not reopen until it does," emphasized Faury, who admitted that "at first, production efficiency can sometimes be very low, "but it will improve" later, as we go along. "

"We are talking with our social partners, sharing the measures that we have implemented for a safe return to work and establishing the appropriate conditions under a suitable shift system. Home work will continue to be applied in some cases and little by little they will be asked that they return, once all the safety and health measures are implemented to ensure the work environment, "he concluded.