The Maribor foundry – Mariborska livarna Maribor (MLM), once a successful company with more than two thousand employees, is in a tragic situation today. After the big words and promises of the Minister of Labour, Luka Mesec, the workers have been left empty-handed, and the insolvency administrator Katarina Benedik has filed a proposal to sell the tools and machinery to a German buyer, Vibracoustic, of which the court has notified the Slovenian Sovereign Holding (SDH), as the separation creditor. This means that the German company is no longer interested in renting the premises.
Let us recall all the promises made by Minister of Labour Luka Mesec to the employees of the foundry, when he promised to stop the sale of the ailing company and to present a “workers’ buy-out” model. Months and years passed, the “workers’ buy-out” turned out to be a utopia, and the workers ended up in the employment office and with Red Cross food parcels, as they did not even get the wages they had already earned.
Now, as can be seen from the letter from the Maribor District Court, the court intends to approve the part of the sale where the value of the tools is below 15,000 euros, to the direct buyer Vibracoustic, and the part of the sale where the value of the tools is above 15,000 euros is to be carried out by public auction, with an increase in the bidding price at the price offered by the German company mentioned above.
Lease negotiations also fall through
After the insolvency administration announced the sale of tools and machinery to a German buyer, it became clear, according to the newspapers Večer and Delo, that negotiations on a possible lease of the production facility to keep the workers employed, had fallen through. This means that as of the 1st of January, all 174 employees will be sent to the employment office, and the details of the decision are expected to be explained to the employees on Wednesday.
At the moment, around 170 workers are still completing production for Vibracoustic, which is why Benedik has extended their employment contracts until the end of December. According to Večer, they are to work only until the 20th of December, and their good work should earn them bonuses on top of their pay for the whole month.
They even sold tools
Since the German client did not decide to rent the premises, the insolvency administrator proposed selling the tools, which, according to a document published by the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (AJPES), were very specific and tailored to the buyer’s production programme.
Mesec’s great venture
The fact is that Mesec’s socialist promises were utopian, yet he misled the workers with his claims. This was also pointed out by Mitja Iršič, who published a post on social media X, which he described as “the four stages of socialist utopia,” adding screenshots of the following titles of articles from various media outlets: “Minister Mesec: The right solution for the Maribor foundry is a transfer to the Slovenian Sovereign Holding, or a workers’ buyout.” The next one reads: “Workers of the Maribor foundry are still waiting for Minister Mesec’s promised presentation.” Then: “All options have been exhausted: The Maribor foundry goes bankrupt on its tenth anniversary.” And the last one reads: “The Maribor foundry is shutting down for good, all workers to go to the employment office.”
Sara Kovač
