ZAGREB, September 3, 2018 – Workers of Rijeka’s 3. Maj shipyard came to work on Monday and the striking committee has decided to end the strike which was put on hold on Friday, committee chairman Veljko Todorović said. He said only minor work was being done in the dock as there was still no material to resume production.
The 3. Maj crisis committee will meet today as the dock’s problems have not been solved and it is necessary to make sure that its account is not blocked again and material needed for work is procured, he added.
The crisis committee first met last Friday. It supports the striking committee’s demands for the payment of wages, the repayment of all loans which 3. Maj gave the Uljanik shipyard in Pula, the procurement of material, the normalisation of production and financial operations, and 3. Maj’s separation from the Uljanik Group.
Unionist Juraj Šoljić demanded an urgent meeting of the supervisory board to analyse the state of affairs in 3. Maj, which has 1,326 workers. “At a time when the company has over 151 million kuna in losses, when we have a loss provision of 133 million kuna and over 118 million kuna in liabilities to affiliates, over 159 million kuna in debts to suppliers, I consider the management responsible for the present state of affairs,” he said, adding that if 3. Maj continued to operate like this, the annual loss would be enormous.
After receiving their July wages and ending an eight-day strike, the workers at Pula’s Uljanik shipyard were back at work on Monday, the striking committee has been dissolved, but a coordinating body of Uljanik unions has been formed, committee chairman Đino Šverko told Hina. He said the coordinating body “will follow the restructuring programme, among other things.”
According to Šverko, the foreign workers brought by the shipowner on Friday afternoon, mainly Spaniards, Italians and Finns, have continued to work on the Scenic Eclipse polar research cruise ship which Uljanik is building for a company within Australia’s Scenic Group. The luxury ocean liner will also sail in polar and tropic regions, for which it is specially equipped, and meet high ecology standards.
The unions on Friday invited Economy Minister Darko Horvat to a meeting at which they “want answers and have their doubts cleared up concerning the restructuring programme, diversification and the role of the strategic partner in future activities.”
