Workers from Croatia's largest shipbuilding group Uljanik went on strike Monday over unpaid September wages, the latest turmoil for a company on the brink of collapse. The group's two shipyards - Uljanik and 3. Maj - employ 4,000 people but it has been teetering towards bankruptcy for the past year. Their workers had already staged strikes over unpaid wages and poor management in January and August.
On Monday, about 1,500 Uljanik workers took part in a protest march in the coastal city of Pula, demanding their wages and the departure of senior managers, the state-run HRT television reported. "We should think about the future of shipbuilding sector which ... should be preserved," Pula mayor Boris Miletic told reporters. The state holds a 25-percent-stake in Uljanik group, while workers control less than 50 percent.
In March, Uljanik chose a local firm as a strategic partner to restructure the company. But the plan was rejected by Brussels because of excessive state participation in the process. A new plan is now in the works. Restructuring of Croatia's once thriving shipbuilding sector was a key condition for the country's entry into the European Union in 2013. The country's other two large shipyards - Brodotrogir and Brodosplit - were privatised in the process.
The industry employs 7,000 people, plus thousands of subcontractors, and accounts for around two percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).
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