Bankrupt Saab’s main blue collar union is disputing reports circulating in Sweden the automaker’s thousands of staff have received redundancy letters in its hometown of Trollhattan.
The reports say the receivers appointed for Saab have sent notices out but the IF Metall union says its members are yet to be told who is to lose their jobs.
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“I called the local representative [in Trollhattan] – the receivers have sent a release and it is wrong in their press release,” IF Metall legal adviser Darko Davidovic told just-auto from Sweden.
“It is just some information they are going to take that action, but they don’t know when and how many [redundancies]. No employees have received letters yet.”
All Saab’s major four unions are now urgently trying to secure payment of overdue November salaries for their near-4,000 members before Christmas this weekend, with the government thought to be stepping in.
The Vanersborg District Court formally confirmed Saab’s bankruptcy placing this week with Hans Bergqvist from Delphi in Gothenburg and Anne-Marie Pouteaux at Wistrand Law Firm in the same city, appointed as trustees.
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By GlobalData“The first thing they [receivers] have to do is negotiate and they have not started that yet,” said Davidovic, who also hinted at several potential purchasers for Saab, although the legal adviser insisted all the unions wanted a wholesale disposal rather than a piecemeal division.
“We have indication [s] of really a lot of buyers,” he said. “From the unions side…our demand is they primarily buy the whole company. We agreed between the unions we don’t want anyone to sell pieces.
“The receivers must first talk to everyone because they really don’t know Saab.”
Davidovic said Saab’s demise had completely dominated Swedish airwaves last night, while today’s media agenda in the country was focused on resolving the salary issue.
The receivers at Delphi were not immediately available for comment.
