IMPORTANT NEWS: National Electric Vehicle Sweden has agreed to buy the assets of Saab Automobile and the sale is expected to be finalized during the summer.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Labor union IF Metall not to file for bankruptcy now

Head of the blue collar union IF Metall, Stefan Löfvén (picture), has told Swedish Radio that after talking to the Saab management the union have not given up hope that Saab will solve the recent problems to pay wages and will thus not file for bankruptcy at this point. This is contrary to what the union's general counsel Darko Davidovic said yesterday when he made it clear that the union was ready to file for bankruptcy today afternoon. According to GT.se the reason is that Saab is in a meeting with a potential investor.

"If we had determined that there is no alternative, no way forward and so on, then we had acted earlier with a bankruptcy because we have the obligation to protect our members' interest in the best way,"  Löfvén told Swedish Radio.

Löfvén continued saying that the union may still file for bankruptcy, but it is a big step to take and there are still other credible options that they want to give a chance:
 
"It's not just a legal process, which we may have to engage in. And it is certainly not ruled out. But it is more to it than that. There is a symbolism of this and it will not help the company's survival. So it's a very big step to take. We are prepared to take it if necessary to protect our members' interests and money. But we also want to watch and see if there are any other options. There are still some options that are credible."

When talking to DI.se  Löfvén was even more clear:

"As long as we believe that Saab has options we will wait to file for bankruptcy, but it must be within a reasonable period of time and less than three weeks," said Stefan Löfven to Di.se.'

It is also worth noting that if a creditor, e.g. the unions, should go to the court and file for bankruptcy in Saab, then Saab will be given time to respond and there will be a legal proceedings that can last from two weeks to several months. And if Saab pays the wages and challenge the filing, then the creditor will no longer have a case and the bankruptcy filing will be stopped. In other words, a bankruptcy filing will be bad for Saab's image, but will not necessarily end in a real bankruptcy.