Catherwood LibraryILR School

Conditions at airline manufacturers Airbus and Boeing have never been worse. With the airline industry in shambles, both companies are struggling to produce and market planes that companies need and can afford, as fuel prices skyrocket. One crucial difference has allowed the Airbus A380 to pull ahead of the Boeing Dreamliner during recent production: despite the imminent threat of massive job loss, increased outsourcing and a miniscule pay raise for the year, workers at Airbus are still working, while workers at Boeing have been on strike for three weeks, trying to re-negotiate for a contract with some job security. Analysts believe that production remains up and running at Airbus, because relations between European laborers and managers tend to be more open and continual, whereas in the United States, workers and management face off only once every several years, when they must renegotiate an entire contract.