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A fresh wave of protests against proposed job cuts at planemaker Airbus is due to take place across Europe. Staff in France, Germany, the UK and Spain are set to stop work in a co-ordinated series of demonstrations against plans to cut 10,000 jobs. Unions have mounted regular stoppages since Airbus revealed its radical retrenchment plan earlier this month. Airbus argues its costs are far too high and must be reduced to speed up production and improve competitiveness. It is proposing to sell or close three of its 16 European factories and is looking for new investment partners for a further three sites. Tens of thousands of workers are expected to take to the streets on Friday to vent their anger at the scale of the cuts, designed to save 5 billion euros by 2010.