Tractorul to see massive layoffs

After months of negotiations to sell Tractorul Brasov, the Privatisation Authority and Myo-o company have reached the most delicate issue: the number of employees. Both parties agree that half the current staff should leave the factory, but the unions are adamantly opposing this idea.
Sources close to the transaction say the decision about letting several thousand people at Tractorul go will be a political one, considering the history of union protests within the company and the upcoming early elections.
“If something happens at Tractorul Brasov, the people at Roman and Rulmentul will also take the streets. I think that high-ranking officials have to take responsibility for a decision to fire so many people, particularly because of the upcoming early elections,” the quoted sources said.
Myo-o was the only company to have submitted a bid for the controlling interests in Tractorul Brasov. Privatisation minister Ovidiu Musetescu admits that the sale of the company in Brasov will be quite a handful for the Privatisation Authority (APAPS).
“The major challenges ahead of us are Siderurgica Hunedoara, Roman Brasov, and Tractorul Brasov – the privatisation of which we are now negotiating and trying to bring to an end, with certain risks and difficulties,” Musetescu says.
The privatisation of Tractorul is also on the agenda of the talks between APAPS and the IMF. The Fund imposed the publication of the sale notice by yearend and APAPS complied, but the failure of two privatisation attempts will lead to the liquidation of the company, as stipulated in the agreement between the two institutions. The plant’s debts totalled 2,634bn ROL (some $90 million) by the end of last year.
The Tractorul platform in Brasov sees 6,800 people working there, 5,000 of which for the parent company, Tractorul UTB, which Myo-o intends to buy.