More reliability worries as radical EADS CASA unions hold protest

Under the red-and-black anarcho-marxist banner of the General Workers' Confederation (CGT), EADS CASA workers protested the aircraft company's non-renewal of contracts for younger workers. They marched in "concentrations" in what the CGT's newsletter, Red and Black, calls the "first response" to the company's attempt to run more efficiently.

The European Union's controversial labor laws make it extremely difficult for companies to fire incompetent or undesirable employees. EADS has been unable to make good on its orders for Airbus jets, causing concerns in Washington that the company might fail to meet Pentagon deadlines should it win the contract to build the Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA).

US policymakers are already alarmed at the potential for a Russian government-owned bank to buy a blocking share of EADS stocks. They are asking questions about whether and how the Pentagon should issue a large contract to a company that could be taken over by the Russians.

In January, EADS CASA employees held a brief work stoppage to protest the US blockage of the sale of 12 of the company's military transport planes to the Hugo Chavez regime in Venezuela. (CGT stock photo)