Croatia to sell its six shipyards
CROATIA has announced that its six government-owned shipyards will be sold before 2009.
Economy minister Damir Polancec said a draft of a tender for the yards has been drawn up by the ministry and the privatisation fund. Croatia decided to sell after talks with the European Commission, news reports indicated.
But union officials were perturbed by the speed of the initiative.
Zvonko Segvic, speaking for the Independent Union of Workers at the largest yard in Croatia, Brodosplit, warned: "We will not accept this without there being a significant social aspect to the proposal.”
Ozren Matijasevic, the head of the Croatian Association of Trade Unions, voiced concern that jobs might be lost in a privatisation.
“The 10,000 employees at the shipyards throughout Croatia will now be worried about keeping their jobs,” Matijasevic added.
Opposition leader Ljubo Jurcic from the Social Democratic Party earlier warned that privatising the yards could endanger up to 42,000 jobs tied to the industry.
“Private investors will only be concerned about their own interests and not the sector as a whole,” he predicted.
The yards are: Brodosplit in Split, Brodotrogir in Trogir, Kraljevica in Kraljevica, Maj in Rijeka, Uljanik in Pula and Viktor Lenac in Martinscica, near Rijeka.