ZAGREB, August 21, 2018 – Workers at the Uljanik shipyard – all 4,500 of them – will go on general strike at 7 a.m. on Wednesday because they didn’t receive their pay for July on Tuesday and they will strike at their work stations, Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia Union shop steward Marina Cvitić said after the last round of negotiations between the management and union failed.
Addressing a press conference, Cvitić said that she wasn’t happy with the situation in Uljanik and that its management board has to go. “This management obviously isn’t capable of normalising the situation at Uljanik, of establishing normal financing of suppliers and sub-contractors, and is obviously incapable of securing workers’ salaries. That is why there is big pressure by workers for this management to go because it has lost credibility and their trust,” Cvitić underscored.
Workers at Uljanik are disgruntled because their livelihood is being jeopardised. July wages are seven days late and their desperation and rage are justifiably growing because they certainly aren’t happy, she said.
Cvitić claimed that the union is asking the government to explain whether it is even interested in retaining Croatia’s shipbuilding as a strategic activity. “What I am appalled by is that after this entire situation, management has the nerve to say that they sleep peacefully and do not feel any responsibility for the whole situation. If the management can sleep peacefully, then in my opinion they are not up to for their positions and should leave them to someone else who will care for workers and secure their livelihood,” Cvitić said and added that it is the management’s moral responsibility to step down.
Uljanik workers were to have received their July wages on August 15 or the next day, considering the public holiday. However, they did not receive their pay on August 17 either and launched conciliation proceedings which, according to the law, last for five days, which expired today.
Workers of the 3. Maj in Rijeka shipyard will also will go on general strike on Wednesday just like workers at Uljanik because they did not receive their wages for July, the Croatian Metalworkers’ Union’s deputy shop steward in 3. Maj, Veljko Todorović, said. “Management did not keep its promise and failed to secure the money for wages.”
He said the union was informed that Uljanik might receive a Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development loan but that this did not happen by 1 p.m. when the group’s management and the union met.
