The workers of the company “Zrak“ blocked the entrance to the company after the bankruptcy trustee announced that the workers would be fired, and therefore production would be completely suspended.
They were also supported by the Union of Metalworkers of the Federation. All of this, we remind you, was preceded by the decision of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo that Zrak was going into bankruptcy. However, during the day, Federal Minister of Energy, Mining and Industry Vedran Lakić met with Edin Čan, acting director of the company Zrak, and said that at the session of the Federal Government on Thursday, he would insist on finding an adequate solution that would prevent bankruptcy.
“We know that these seven million that are provided in the budget for Zrak to become operational as soon as possible, whether it will be through some budget rebalancing or to change the purpose because now the budget is planned for recapitalization. It is not a fast process at all, so we suggested to the minister that if everything goes well with regard to the bankruptcy appeal, if the decision is annulled, we plan to take a loan in order to pay off the debtors as soon as possible,” Cano said.
“We decided on that move. We had to for a thousand and one reasons. The most important thing is that, if 53 workers are sent to the bureau, production will absolutely stop. The question is whether anyone will return to this company, most likely no one will. We will come to a situation where the contract with the Austrian company, for which the goods should go in June of this year, will not be respected,” said Emir Kominlija, president of the Zrak.
Earlier, the government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina(FBiH) continues to promote the process of bankruptcy of the company “Zrak”, regardless of the signing of a new contract with the renowned European manufacturer of military equipment Hirtenberger, and two more foreign contracts were planned.
Semir Efendic, the head of the Municipality of Novi Grad Sarajevo, revealed the information that one of the lawyers has already received a decision from the court on the appointment of a bankruptcy administrator in the company “Zrak” for the one-month pre-bankruptcy procedure.
Efendic added that the decision states that the management of the company should propose a decision on bankruptcy. However, the mandate of the current acting management of “Zrak” expired at the beginning of this week, and the FBiH Government has not yet appointed a new one.
To recall, the long-awaited contract and strategic partnership between “Zrak” and “Hirtenberger” was made official last week. The workers, as well as the chief, believed that such a large contract would save “Zrak” from bankruptcy.
However, we see that this did not happen. Even earlier, Efendic accused the Prime Minister of the FBiH Fadil Novalic (SDA) and the Entity Minister of Energy, Mining and Industry Nermin Djindic (SBB) for the difficult situation in “Zrak”.
“We cannot believe that now the FBiH Government is again pushing ‘Zrak‘ into bankruptcy. Now we have a contract with a European giant when it comes to the production of weapons and military equipment. I think that before there might have been a better time for ‘Zrak‘to go into bankruptcy, but now it is definitely not the time for that. Minister Nermin Djindic is the biggest culprit for that. We see now that everything is being done for the sake of the interests of individuals. We will not give up and will do everything in our power to save the company ‘Zrak’,” told Emir Kominlija, president of the Trade Union of the company “Zrak”.
If the question is asked why it is in the interest of the state to push a state-owned company into bankruptcy, the answer is simple. The value of Zrak’s facilities and land is almost 40 million BAM. Construction lobbies find the location attractive, so they do everything to pollute Zrak, destroy and wipe out buildings from the ground, and seize the land. Construction brokers and privatization funds want to come between management and workers, they give bribe to individuals, separate workers, and have done everything to ensure that even the air in “Zrak” (air) is not clean.
Namely, “Zrak” workers announced several times and went on protests to express their dissatisfaction with the situation in which they find themselves.
