The committee representing strikers in the Zeljezara Split ironworks decided on Monday that a group of workers who have been on hunger strike for the last 11 days would end the strike after today's talks between representatives of the company's workers and union leaders and Economy Minister Djuro Popijac.
Shop steward Mladen Bekavac told Hina that the strikers were very exhausted.
At the meeting in Zagreb, Economy Minister Popijac and representatives of the company's workers agreed that steel wire stored in Split's Northern Port would be taken and processed by Zeljezara Split to provide work for its employees who have not been working for a year.
The money earned by selling the processed wire will be used to pay workers' salaries.
After the talks with Zeljezara Split workers, Popijac said a meeting had been held with a prominent German company interested in buying Zeljezara Split. In the coming days, the possible investor will thoroughly analyse Zeljezara Split's operations, and talks with other potential investors will continue as well, the minister said.
As the investor is being sought, the current owner of Zeljezara Split, the Polish company Zlomrex, will be offered a consensual termination of the purchase contract. If that is done and if no new investor is found before, the Croatian Privatisation Fund (HFP) will again become the owner of Zeljezara Split, and an agreement will be signed to that effect.
Talks with Zlomrex will start on March 11.
After the signing of the agreement, and if Zeljezara Split is not sold before, the HFP will act as the company's owner, which means that it can sell Zeljezara Split to a new buyer, appoint a new management to organise production, and settle workers' claims (salaries, severance pay).
