Deindustrijalizacija i radnički otpor - Pokret za slobodu

Šinvoz – the Case of BankruptcyŠinvoz started privatization in the early ‘90s, under AnteMarković’s original privatization law. Workers bought 14%of the initial offering of shares, but after a couple of monthsthe management suggested that the privatization processbe temporarily suspended in light of the 1993 hyperinflationtriggered by UN economic sanctions imposed on the then FederalRepublic of Yugoslavia (FRY).Šinvoz’s Assembly reached a decision at the time to halt the privatizationprocess, which proved to be quite a smart move, because if theycontinued, workers’ shares would have been terminated in 1995. But,since the sale of shares was halted in early 1993, workers who boughtshares managed to keep their 14%. It wouldn't help them much in theyears to come however. Under the terms of the 2001 privatization deal,the workers got an additional 30% of the Šinvoz’s shares - thus bringingtheir ownership of the enterprise to 44% of the total.On 26 April 2004, Serbia’s Privatization Agency (PA) sold 56% ofŠinvoz’s remaining capital to one Nebojša Ivković from Belgrade. Atthat point in time there were 694 employees in the company. Besidespaying the sale price, Ivković took on the added obligation of investing17.9-million dinars into company assets in the 12-month periodfollowing the signing of the contract. Despite numerous warnings byworker-shareholders that Ivković was sabotaging the company – theypresented five broken diesel-electric engines for the purposes of cuttinginto waste-iron as a senseless ‘investment’ by the new owner - thePA, nonetheless accepted an audit report that concluded that investmentswere being carried out in conformity with the contract.During the inspections by state auditors of Ivković’s execution ofhis contractual obligations - conducted on 24 October 2005, 17 April2006 and 20 March 2007 - the PA’s officials refused repeated requestsby worker-shareholders to simply observe the recently purchased anduseless engines lying in the Šinvoz yard. The workers also informed thePA about the possibility that the engines weren’t bought by NebojšaIvković, but that they had come from an arrangement between Šinvozand the Serbian Railroad Company before Ivković purchased his 56%share of Šinvoz. The PA did nothing to follow up on any of these allega-329