All companies in Zavidovići to close tomorrow: Warning to authorities to help Krivaja

All business entities in the Zavidovići area will cease operations tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., in support of more than 700 workers of Krivaja, whose new management is not paying contributions and not providing salaries, reports the Patria agency.

Hundreds of workers and their friends will gather during that time at the city stadium, from where they will send a message to the authorities demanding help for the workers of this former economic giant.

One of the representatives of Krivaja workers, Besim Husić, told Patria that preparations for tomorrow's gathering are complete. It will be a peaceful gathering of workers, and from the protest they want to send a message that a "dead" Krivaja means a "dead" entire Zavidovići municipality.

- The entire municipality is with us. Zavidovići wants to support Krivaja workers - said Husić.

The once renowned company Krivaja was privatized in 2014 by a partnership group consisting of several smaller companies from Zavidovići and neighboring municipalities. Since the new owner did not fulfill the obligations from the contract, the Municipal Court in Zenica recommended that the contract between the partnership group and Krivaja be terminated. Workers are now demanding the annulment of the contract and the sale of the company to a new owner. On the other hand, the partnership group does not accept such a proposal. They have not fulfilled what they agreed to when purchasing Krivaja, but they still do not want to give up Krivaja's millions in assets.

Workers claim that the only thing the new owner did after entering Krivaja was to change the company's name to Krivaja Mobel.

More than 400 Krivaja workers blocked intersections in Zavidovići on March 18. The town was almost paralyzed. They accused the commander of the police station in Zavidovići of helping the company's management to remove valuable materials from the company, while at the same time workers were denied access to Krivaja, writes Patria.