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GENERAL MOTORS

Workers: ‘Save Saab from Gangster Motors’

At noon on Tuesday, thousands of Saab Automobile employees gathered outside the company’s factory in Trollhättan in western Sweden to signal their displeasure with the behaviour of Saab owner General Motors (GM).

Workers: 'Save Saab from Gangster Motors'

“There was enormous support as 3,500 people turned out to demonstrate in support of our battle to save Saab,” Håkan Danielsson, head of the local chapter of the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers (Sveriges Ingenjörer) told The Local shortly after the demonstration.

It didn’t take long for the crowd to erupt in cheers of “Save Saab! Save Saab!”, urged on by the words of the head of Unionen labour group’s local chapter, Annette Hellgren.

“Mr. Obama – please save Saab,” read one banner unfurled by the Saab workers frustrated by the seemingly unending drama surrounding the company’s future.

“GM – General Mistake”, read another.

The speaker’s podium was emblazoned with a sign reading, “Save Saab from GM, Gangster Motors”, further signaling dissatisfaction with GM among the plant’s employees for the auto giant’s seeming inability to provide a clear answer regarding whether Saab will be sold or shut down.

In a letter to GM head Ed Whitacre presented at the demonstration and signed by “The Proud Employees of Saab Automobile AB”, Saab workers urge the US automaker to sell Saab.

“Show us that you keep promises,” reads the brief letter.

“Save Saab – Sell Saab.”

The four main union chapters represented at Saab’s Trollhättan plant have also sent a letter entitled, “Why endanger American taxpayers’ money?”, to US-based media outlets.

“It is a waste of US tax payers money not to sell Saab!!!,” write the union representatives in an attempt to frame the sale of Saab by GM, which received billions of dollars in government aid to help it survive, as an issue of using public money responsibly.

It was snowy and cold when Saab workers arrived for work on Tuesday morning.

Lena Dahl, who has worked at the plant for 28 years made it clear her dissatisfaction with GM management had reached boiling point.

“If I had those guys eye to eye, I don’t know what I’d do,” she told the TT news agency.

It remains unclear whether or not the company will be sold or shuttered.

According to Saab factory spokesperson Gunilla Gustavs, the plant is trying to operate with both possibilities in mind.

“We’re working on two parallel tracks, and obviously hope that we don’t need to use the track which leads to liquidation,” she told the TT news agency.

“There are still ongoing discussion about the sale of Saab Automobile,” she added.

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TROLLHÄTTAN

Trollhättan remembers school attack victims

Hundreds of people on Saturday turned out for a torchlight procession in the small town of Trollhättan in southwestern Sweden to honour the victims of last year’s deadly school attack there.

Trollhättan remembers school attack victims
'It was an attack on all of Sweden,' Education Minister Gustav Fridolin said. Photo: Thomas Johansson/ TT

Three people were killed in an attack that shocked Sweden as a masked, sword-wielding assailant entered the school, stabbing students and teachers who appeared to be of foreign origin. Several people were also injured. The attacker, 21-year-old Anton Lundin Pettersson, was then shot dead by police.

“It was an attack on all of Sweden,” Education Minister Gustav Fridolin said as the procession ended outside the school.

In the week running up to the one-year anniversary, students of the school had made thousands of postcards in memory of the teacher, pupil and teacher aide who were killed in the assault.

A police investigation has showed that Lundin had planned the attack, which lasted around 10 minutes, after being inspired by racist websites.

A teenage student told The Local at the time that many people at the school at first thought it was some kind of a prank.

“I was in a classroom with my class when one of my classmates’ sisters called her to warn her that there was a murderer at the school. So we locked the door to the classroom, but our teacher was still outside in the corridor.”

“We wanted to warn him, so a few of us went outside and then I saw the murderer, he was wearing a mask and had a sword. Our teacher got stabbed.”

“The murderer started chasing me, I ran into another classroom. If I had not run, I would have been murdered. I’m feeling really scared. Everyone’s scared here.”

Trollhättan is an industrial town with around 50,000 residents.