The President of the RBN Independent Trade Union, Borisav Bojovic, said they were treated by the authorities as if they came from nowhere, and the only official report they received was the decision of the Committee of Creditors on rejecting the “Neksan” company’s offer to purchase the property of the Mines.
“First, the concessions and benefits for workers were their excuse. No one mentioned the price. Now, lacking the other reasons, they mentioned the price,” Bojanovic said.
He said that the miners do not need sorrow of the Committee Chairman, Dragana Djuranovic and the Committee member, Snezana Vukovic, expressed through the meeting minutes.
“We will fight for our demands. From now on, the Committee of Creditors may work either by law, or obeying someone else’s orders, because we are united,” Bojovic said.
He added that the miners would persist in their demands, the first one of which was to sell assets in order to pay off the debts and bridge employees’ service gaps in order for those who met conditions, to be retired by the end of June.
Mr Bojanovic said that it was not true that the “Neksan’s” offer worth €4.4 million was not high enough to cover priority claims of the first category.
Asked if they fear the protests could be politicised, Mr Bojanovic said the workers were not afraid of anything since they had nothing to feed their families and were not interested in anything else. He stressed their protest had nothing to do with politics or mafia.
He added they were ready to negotiate with the authorities if they had a solution for the RBN, stressing that a potential meeting had to be held in Niksic.
The workers spent the previous night on the road in the settlement of Rubeza, blocking the transport towards the village of Niksicka Zupa, after the Committee of Creditors had decided to reject the “Neksan’s” offer.
They began the blockade on Thursday, June 18th, at 3PM. A lot of policemen have been at the site. As the workers claim, the number of police officers has been raised this morning.
Last night, they did not accept the invitation of Economy Minister Vladimir Kavaric to meet in Podgorica, announcing they would continue blocking the road, leading to the mine pits in Niksicka Zupa.
They required the Minister Kavaric to come to Niksic and hold meeting with representatives of the workers in the RBN Administration Building. Ranko Radulovic, a local businessman who had been convicted of criminal offences, came at the site trying to “persuade” the workers to go to Podgorica.
After a heated argument with the workers and Janko Vucinic, the leader of the Labour Party and the MP for the Democratic Front (DF), Mr Radulovic was taken away from the site by the police.
A group of workers of the company “Metalac” and fired workers of the Steel Mill “Toscelik” are on the site too.
The owner of the “Neksan”, Miodrag Davidovic, said he had not given up on buying the Bauxite Mines and that he would submit a new offer.
He said that “the match had just started”.
“We will not let the workers down ever, at any cost. It has become a matter of principle now,” Davidovic said.
