Breda withdraws from deal with Ikarbus?

Although the signing of the contract on business-technical cooperation between Bus factory Ikarbus and Italian company Breda Menarinibus was announced for January 20th, the contract was not signed after all. Velimir Gligorić, the President of the trade union in Ikarbus, told Danas that the workers were on the paid leave of 45 days in spite of the fact that they had been told that the production might start on February 1st.

- Workers will gather today on the factory grounds and ask the management to give some explanation. They also expect help from the Ministry of Economy. Stories about privatization are reaching the employees, as well as the stories about Breda's withdrawal from the announced deal. We don't know what's happening - says Gligorić.

According to what we learned, one of the problems is the issue of procurement of parts for production of buses because the Italian partner announced that all necessary parts would be delivered from its headquarters, while the Ministry and the factory's management insist on procurement of some parts in the market of Serbia. In addition, there is still problem of unpaid salaries. The workers received one of six late salaries in mid-November. In the meantime, we have not heard anything from the Ministry of Economy as one of the signatories to the contract. The meeting dedicated to Ikarbus was supposed to be held on Friday and, on that occasion, the representatives of Breda were supposed to clear out all the disputable details, but the outcome remained unknown.