SPLIT STREET SPLIT, Aug 30 (Hina) - Employees with the Split-based Diokom company staged a protest rally in a street in Split, thwarting traffic for 45 minutes on Wednesday afternoon, and subsequently took over all power-generating
plants in this company, cutting off electricity completely. They carried out such actions protesting against the current situation in this company which has had to file for bankruptcy due to its huge debts. Besides, the purpose of their action when they caused a blackout in the company was to prevent some head clerks from working off the books for their own profit whereas ordinary workers have usually received just 150 kuna (approximately 18 US dollars) per month recently, said two union leaders, Ante Pocrnic and Ozren Matijasevic today. They announced that workers would step up their protest rallies and tomorrow they would block two busiest streets in Split but declined to say where and when i
SPLIT, Aug 30 (Hina) - Employees with the Split-based Diokom
company staged a protest rally in a street in Split, thwarting
traffic for 45 minutes on Wednesday afternoon, and subsequently
took over all power-generating plants in this company, cutting off
electricity completely.
They carried out such actions protesting against the current
situation in this company which has had to file for bankruptcy due
to its huge debts.
Besides, the purpose of their action when they caused a blackout in
the company was to prevent some head clerks from working off the
books for their own profit whereas ordinary workers have usually
received just 150 kuna (approximately 18 US dollars) per month
recently, said two union leaders, Ante Pocrnic and Ozren
Matijasevic today.
They announced that workers would step up their protest rallies and
tomorrow they would block two busiest streets in Split but declined
to say where and when it would happen exactly.
Workers with the "Diokom" took to the streets on Tuesday to express
their indignation at the resignation of the Diokom's trustee in
bankruptcy Joso Malenica who was the third trustee to have resigned
from this position. Protesters said yesterday they would continue
with 45-minute-long protest rallies every day in Split streets in
order to retain their jobs and help Diokom to survive, with
assistance of the Croatian Government and local authorities.
Today Matijasevic said they asked Malenica to be active at the first
court hearing set for 8 September at the Split Commercial court and
to insist on the payment of redundancy cash and salaries to the
workers.
On Tuesday Malenica explained his decision to resign by asserting
that local authorities were not sufficiently interested in helping
this company to survive. On Wednesday Mayor Ivan Skaric responded
to this accusation saying that it was an irresponsible act of the
bankruptcy commissioner Malenica to leave this job before he
finished it. Malenica was the trustee in bankruptcy for less than
one month.
Mayor Skaric, who is a member of the co-ordinating body in charge of
helping Diokom to survive, said he hoped the Government, that is a
majority owner of Diokom, would take adequate steps to discontinue
this difficult situation.
Diokom, which used to be a leading company in Dalmatia, now employs
2,308 workers. It has filed for bankruptcy. Economy Minister,
Goranko Fizulic, however, is in favour of its survival. He has held
a few meetings with the management, trustee and workers so far and
is expected to come to Split on September 1 to continue with these
efforts.
(hina) ms