COMMERCIAL BANK UNIONS SEND OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT TUDJMAN

ZAGREB, Aug 9 (Hina) - The Commercial Bank workers' unions on Monday sent an open letter to Croatian President Franjo Tudjman requesting his support for their demand that all bank employees be given new work contracts. Offering new contracts to the current employees would create conditions for a normal process of drawing up a project of the bank's reorganisation, the unions believe. The rehabilitation of the Commercial Bank would be an introduction into the revival of morality in Croatia and the country's financial renewal, said the letter, signed by commissioners of the Federation of Independent Unions of Croatia and a union of workers not employed in the industrial sector and private company employees. The work contracts of the remaining 99 employees of the Commercial Bank expired on August 8. The contracts were signed in June, after the unions undertook to propose a plan of the bank's reorganisation and find investors within two months. Mario Ivekovic, the commissioner of the Federation of Independent Unions of Croatia for the City of Zagreb, today said the unions had fulfilled their part of obligations and found the investors, whereas the Bankruptcy Council had failed to carry out its duties. At today's meeting with the trustee for the Commercial Bank, Pero Hrkac, Commercial Bank employees failed to obtain guarantees that they would be offered new work contracts. (hina) rml