Saab Sob Story: Saab Auto Workers’ Union Raises Bankruptcy Threat over Not Paying Workers (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on June 23, 2011
Saab, the innovative car company that came up with the awesome PhoeniX concept, may be headed for bankruptcy action over unpaid wages.
Nothing’s safe anymore. Not even Saab.
From New York Times, Saab Workers Miss a Paycheck:
PARIS — The outlook for Saab took a turn for the worse on Thursday, after the automaker’s Dutch owner said that it was unable to pay employees their June salaries and warned that the prospects for obtaining short-term funding were uncertain.
Swedish Automobile, based in Zeewolde, Netherlands and formerly known as Spyker Cars, said it and Saab Automobile “were in discussions with various parties” over funding, including through a planned sale and lease-back of Saab’s real-estate assets.
“These discussions are ongoing,” the company said. “There can however be no assurance that these discussions will be successful or that the necessary funding will be obtained.”
The more than 3,700 employees at Saab were last paid a month ago, a spokeswoman said. Blue-collar workers were to have been paid Thursday, while white-collar employees were to be paid next Monday.
Promo video of the Saab PhoeniX Concept — innovation at its finest.
Saab PhoeniX Concept
From AutoWeek, Saab unions threaten bankruptcy action over unpaid wages:
Unions at Saab, which is unable to pay wages to its workers, threatened today to start a legal process that could end in bankruptcy for the iconic brand.
The IF Metall and Unionen groups said they would send a formal demand for payment on Monday if their members had not received their wages.
“Then the company has seven days to react,” IF Metall representative Veli-Pekka Saikkala told Reuters. “After that there are two alternatives. Either we see that the situation can be solved, or we demand that Saab is put into bankruptcy.”
From Wall Street Journal, Saab Auto Workers’ Union Raises Bankruptcy Threat:
STOCKHOLM (Dow Jones)–A Swedish labor union Thursday threatened to force car maker Saab into bankruptcy proceedings over workers’ unpaid wages.
Union IF Metall said it now is gathering from its members pay slips that haven’t been honored in order to prepare requests for payment that will be sent to Saab Automobile. When Saab Automobile receives the requests, likely sometime next week, it will have a week to pay the claims.
“If it does not have the money at that point, there is only one thing left to do,” said Berko Davidovic, lawyer at IF Metall.
IF Metall then would have three weeks before it could force Saab Automobile into bankruptcy, he said. The only way Saab’s employees can receive money from a state wage fund is if the employer is declared bankrupt.
In the meantime, IF Metall is negotiating for an emergency bank loan to support its members.
Saab Automobile, a unit of Swedish Automobile NV (SWAN.AE), Thursday said it couldn’t pay workers’ wages because it hasn’t secured short-term funding, an indication of the dire state of the company’s finances as it tries to finalize agreements with suppliers to resume production and while it waits for regulators to approve a deal with Chinese investors.
Swedish Automobile, formerly Spyker Cars NV, has agreed to sell stakes totalling more than 50% of its shares to Chinese companies Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. Ltd. and Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. Ltd. (601258.SH). Those investments need to be rubber stamped by Swedish and Chinese authorities but consideration will take time.
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