"ZAGREPCANKA" WORKERS STOP PROTEST FOLLOWING GOVT PROMISE TO REORGANISE FIRM

ZAGREB, Nov 3 (Hina) - Tuesday's protest meeting, staged by the workers of the Croatian meat-processing industry "Zagrepcanka" in Zagreb, ended this afternoon after the Government promised the workers to financially reorganise their company. The rehabilitation of the company, whose majority owners are the Government and the Croatian Privatisation Fund, will be completed by November 16 and then discussed by the Government coordination for financial reorganisation. About 200 "Zagrepcanka" employees, led by union representatives, gathered this morning in front of the Croatian Government building, refusing to leave until they were guaranteed that the financial reorganisation of their company would be carried out. The Government had promised to reorganise the company back in September. The Zagreb police had not issued a permit for the protest meeting and the protesters had to break through the police blockade in order to reach St. Mark's Square, where the protest took place. Police did not try to stop the meeting, which ended without incidents. "Give us back our jobs", "Butchers are humans too" - read some of the placards carried by the "Zagrepcanka" workers, dressed in their white working overalls. On September 22, "Zagrepcanka" employees and a Government delegation agreed for the company's management to submit to the Government a financial reorganisation programme within a 60-day period. The programme was drawn up in the meantime but the Government has not discussed it yet. Workers suspected that the adoption of the programme was being intentionally stalled so that the company could go bankrupt and the City of Zagreb, which owns the land in Zagreb's Heinzlova Street where the company's headquarters are, could sell or lease the land dearly. (hina) jn rml