TIANJIN - The European aircraft maker Airbus SAS has expressed gratitude to a Communist Party of China commission for helping it to make its Tianjin factory into a good workplace, a feat that has been essential to ensuring the factory manufactures jets that are of equal quality to those made in Europe, said a Party secretary.
In 2006, Airbus entered into a joint agreement with a Chinese consortium for the final assembly of the A320 passenger jet in Tianjin.
"We are the first European company in Tianjin to set up a Party commission," said Xu Gang, chairman of Airbus (Tianjin) Final Assembly Co Ltd and secretary of the Party commission there. "The French side supports our commission very much because they know it's good for the company's development."
The Tianjin factory is the first place outside Europe where Airbus has undertaken the final assembly of its planes. Airbus controls 51 percent of the venture and the remaining shares are split between the members of a Chinese consortium composed of China Aviation Industry Corp and the Tianjin Free Trade Zone, which represents the local government.
The plant rolled out its first A320 airplane in June 2009 and has so far delivered more than 50 to nine Chinese airlines.
The factory is now able to assemble three jets each month and is steadily increasing its rate of production.
Xu said a high priority has been placed on maintaining the high production quality at the factory.
Workers there must learn the various techniques needed to assemble the different parts of a plane.
"Last but not least, teamwork plays a significant role in assembly, because many people must work together at the same time," Xu said.
"The Party commission is meant to teach people about these things. Party members are pioneers in morality and awareness. They set examples and then bring staff members together and influence them."
Xu added that the commission has helped to ensure the factory is a good place to work by fostering an understanding between the management and staff there, as well as between Chinese and foreign workers.
Xu said the company had previously offered breakfast, but that meant staff had to get up early if they wanted to take advantage of the offer. Later, to allow workers to sleep later, managers adopted a policy of providing them with meal vouchers.
The change did not prove widely popular, though. Managers discovered that it caused discontent among many employees.
A Party commission was set up to to discover the cause of the grievances and concluded that the workers had not understood the intentions behind the policy change.
"Then Party members and staff sat down and talked, and we came up with a better solution - that breakfast could still be offered and our people could also receive some vouchers," Xu said, adding that staff members began to work harder and adopt a better attitude following the change.
Xu said the factory employs about 500 people, of whom more than 100 are expatriates.
"Most of them are here in China for the first time. Many of them will, in large part, form their impressions of China according to how Chinese employees behave," Xu said.
He added that Party members make it a point to behave well and influence the Chinese workers to exhibit good manners and be friendly to the foreign staff members.
