Deindustrijalizacija i radnički otpor - Pokret za slobodu

tions (even though in April 2008 these allegations were proven by theAnti-Corruption Council of the Government of Serbia).By early 2007, Ivković had halted production in Šinvoz, blamingthe workers’ protests for “sabotaging” the company’s development. Althoughthe workers warned the PA that the majority owner was deliberatelydriving the company into bankruptcy, the PA concluded thatIvković‘s management was performing well. In the summer of 2007,the workers launched public protests in front of Zrenjanin’s City Hall.There was no response from local authorities. Instead, Šinvoz unionleader Mita Lisica and one more worker were fired from their jobs. Localcourts reinstated them in September, only a few days before Šinvoz’stwo major creditors – Belgrade-based TTC Logistic and Jugopapir -filed legal demands for debtor bankruptcy.Interestingly, both these creditor companies are also owned byNebojša Ivković.It may seem weird that an owner would force his company intobankruptcy. However, there is a certain logic to such a strategy, forwhile the majority shareholder (Ivković) can control the company, hecannot control it absolutely as long as the workers are also co-owners.This is doubly true after worker-shareholder struggles like those at Jugoremedijaincreased the level of respect for property rights in Serbia.Therefore, since 2007 bosses acquiring newly privatized firmsthroughout Serbia, started to employ the following simple tactic: theywould appoint a management team with no worker-shareholder representativesand use the absence of control to make bad business dealsthrough which the company would become indebted. Yet the trick isthat the debts are incurred to shell companies owned by the same person.So, when the factories go bankrupt, the former majority owner,now the majority creditor, re-buys them - this time with 100% of theshares.Besides the workers’ shares, the second target of this type of scamis the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the management– an agreement that the new owners (often) inherit fromthe socialist era. The agreement is annulled as well when the companygoes into bankruptcy, all the workers are laid off and the union ceasesto exist. When a former majority owner regains the factory after bankruptcy,he/she can then choose whom to re-employ. Any union thatis reinstated under such conditions will be under the full control of theboss and his/her new management.330