Sisak, (IKA) – In response to the announcement of the possible closure of the Sisak Refinery, Bishop Vlado Košić of Sisak issued the following public statement on September 23:
“For several days, all of us in Sisak have been listening with trepidation to announcements that our Sisak INA Refinery will close. It is even painful to think about the fate of the workers and their families who will be affected by such a decision, if it is adopted. Personally, I have observed the deterioration of the city and county of Sisak for the past five years and wonder how some other cities and counties are able to develop their economic, cultural and other contents while only Sisak and Sisak-Moslavina County have been unable to do so. Are they led by the wrong people and has the government failed, so that by becoming oriented to wild capitalism under so-called market competition it has become completely oriented toward unmitigated greed for profit, without seeing the people without whom, ultimately, not even that profit will exist. The social welfare state is in our Constitution but sensitivity to labor, human destiny and general issues concerning the Croatian person have, unfortunately, received low priority. Our authorities often only claim to be for our people, while, in reality it is frequently evident that they only care about their own benefits and do not know how or even do not want to defend either the national interest or the common man who needs his country, who needs it to protect him from attacks on his life. With all my soul, I protest the decision to close the Sisak Refinery. I appeal to those responsible to resist pressures and defend not only our city of Sisak but also Croatia and our people, especially workers and their families, and to save the future for which so many generations of the best Croatian people have lovingly sacrificed,” said the Bishop of Sisak and President of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Croatian Conference of Bishops.
The closing of the Sisak Refinery would leave more than a thousand workers without jobs.