[ad_1]
The Continental company in Germany closes the plants and dismisses the workers. As a result, around 1,000 people protested in Offenbach.
Izvor: Deutsche Welle
Photo: Depositphotos, BalkansCat
During that time, Serbia plans to start building a new plant near Novi Sad.
“Work, stay!” This slogan has been heard for several months whenever there are protests against the abolition of jobs. It was also heard on Thursday (10.12) on the streets of Offenbach. There were about 300 vehicles on the long driveway and about 1,000 people participated in the warning rally, said the IG Metal union, the organizer of the protest.
The workers protest against Continental’s intentions to cut almost 2,600 jobs at the Babenhausen factory. The company suffered losses of 1.1 billion euros from January to September this year, wants to cut a total of 13,000 jobs in Germany and move production to Eastern Europe, says Doje.
“Via League of Investors”
That’s largely done. The company already employs 21,000 workers in Romania and in 2018 a Research and Development Center was opened in Serbia. The “Via liga investorta”, as Serbian President Aleksandar Vui characterized it in 2018 at the inauguration of that Center in Novi Sad, then received, according to the media, a grant from the State of Serbia amounting to 9.5 million euros for the hiring of 500 engineers. Since then, the company has employed around 500 people.
“They are about 500 highly qualified engineers,” Saa Oringa, director of Continental Automotive Serbia once said, emphasizing that “they have fulfilled their obligation to the state, they have hired all the engineers” and continue to grow without subsidies. He also announced “new investments.”
“New Investments”: This is another factory in the vicinity of Novi Sad, the construction of which should start later this year. Saa Oringa announced that there will be produced “the most modern and complex warning systems for drivers designed at the company’s research center in Novi Sad.”
Union complaints
Meanwhile, in Germany, the IG Metal union accuses Continental management of having no interest in reaching a compromise in the negotiations. The union demands that workers be paid compensation of at least 25,000 euros, plus 2.5 monthly salaries for each year of service.
The negotiating partners at the Hannover headquarters “obviously had no decision-making authority,” said the president of the Workers’ Council, Ana Nothing. And she said, “We don’t want to be given anything, but we want to be taken seriously.”
[ad_2]
