(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The ink has barely dried on Airbus SE’s announcement that it will cut 15,000 jobs, or about 11% of the workforce, and the French finance minister is already criticizing the cuts as “excessive.” Pushback from governments and trade unions is inevitable when big industrial companies announce layoffs. That’s especially true at Airbus, which has assembly lines on three continents and counts France, Germany and Spain as anchor shareholders.Redundancies are never pleasant and they’re a particular blow in aerospace because employees are usually highly skilled and well paid. Unite, a British trade union, said the loss of 1,700 Airbus jobs in the U.K. was an act of “industrial vandalism.” Airbus hasn’t cut this deep before, but the workforce is fortunate not to suffer even more. The impact of Covid-19 on Airbus’s aircraft-making business has been devastating. In 2020 and 2021, it will probably produce 40% fewer planes than planned. The company...
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. endured a roughly seven-week shutdown of its most important car plant in the world last quarter, but its brand-new backup factory may have saved the day.The manufacturer may have delivered more than 82,000 vehicles last quarter, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Some even expect Tesla to surpass the roughly 87,000 cars handed over to customers a year ago, or the more than 88,000 delivered in the first three months of this year.Expectations were much lower just a few months ago, when Tesla and its automotive peers shut factories and showrooms and watched their stock prices crater. But while other car manufacturers’ shares have come back slowly, Tesla’s have soared, closing Tuesday at a record high of $1,079.81. The company’s market capitalization has shot up to $200.3 billion, passing Exxon Mobil Corp. and closing in on auto industry leader Toyota Motor Corp. Tesla shares were little...
