FORMER "BOROVO" PLANT WORKERS HOLD PROTEST

VUKOVAR, April 17 (Hina) - Around 100 former workers of Vukovar's rubber and footwear factory "Borovo" gathered in front of the company on Thursday for a peaceful protest, demanding the same rights as granted recently to the factory workers who had been expelled from the Vukovar area in 1991. #L# The rally was organised by a committee gathering the workers of the former "Borovo" company, whose president Ljubica Tepavac read out a letter the committee forwarded to President Stjepan Mesic, Premier Ivica Racan, Economy Minister Ljubo Jurcic, Labour Minister Davorko Vidovic, "Borovo" director Ninoslav Bajza, and Vukovar County prefect Nikola Safer. The committee supported the exiled "Borovo" workers having won the right to severance pays, demanding the same right for the workers who had remained in the Vukovar area after its occupation in 1991. Those workers were sacked in early 1992 because they failed to report with the company's management in exile. The workers, mostly of Serb nationality, who after 1991 remained in the Vukovar area, request that the company, which once employed 22,000 and today employs around 1,300 workers, give them severance pay, recognise their years of service and pay overdue pension and health insurance contributions, as well as give them back the right to own shares in the company. Company director Ninoslav Bajza told reporters "Borovo" had provided for all workers who after the occupation of Vukovar had registered with the company's management in exile, while those who had not done so had been sacked and were no longer "Borovo" workers. He added that around 8,000 workers had registered with the exiled management, including a certain number of people who remained in the occupied areas. Today's protest was condemned by the president of the Association of "Borovo" Workers, Mirko Grahorac. The association gathers around 3,500 former Borovo workers who in 1991 remained in the Vukovar area. (hina) rml