16 March, 2009Bulgarian union Metallicy restarted a series of protests seeking to save Bulgaria's largest steel plant Kremikovtzi and demanded from the government to develop restructuring and compensation programs.
BULGARIA: On 10 and 11 of March the IMF affiliated metalworkers' union 'Metallicy' organised protest actions in the centre of Sofia. The workers demanded from the Prime Minister to finalise negotiations with the Brazilian company CSN interested in acquisition of the Kremikovtzi plant.
At the same time the workers also insist on development by the government of an alternative program including restructuring and a compensation scheme based on retraining, early retirement and severance payments in the amount of 30 monthly salaries to the workers who would lose their jobs.
The workers are also demanding an immediate investigation into the reasons and persons responsible for the company's collapse after its privatisation in 1999.
The union decided to renew protests following the Government's failure to take proper decisions regarding the future of the plant for more than 4 years.
Last autumn following the news of a potential closure of the troubled plant in Kremikovtzi which was announced insolvent in August 2008, workers staged a number of protests demanding to pay out their wages. So far only half of the Kremikovtzi workers have received their wages for November 2008, the remaining nearly 5000 workers are still waiting for their earned money.