* The Minister of the Economy assures that he is working on the privatization

* Varujan Vosganian was in Brussels to get the agreement for the state aid for the plant

* Union leader: "Only 7-8% of the plant is still operational"

23 employees of the "Oltchim" plant are on hunger strike, starting on Tuesday, according to Corneliu Cernev, union leader, who went on to say, that at the moment, only 7-8% of the plant is still operational.

Corneliu Cernev said: "23 people are on hunger strike, starting yesterday (ed. note: Tuesday). They have set the hunger strike themselves, this has not been organized by the union, we just support them. Other people may join as well. Innocent people will die here, and minister Vosganian (ed. note: Varujan Vosganian, the minister of the Economy) is playing unions. He is probably waiting for 100 people to go on hunger strike to get a move on. Our hands are tied, there is nothing we can do."

The Oltchim plant is now in insolvency. The request for the beginning of this procedure was approved on January 30th by the court of Vâlcea.

Approximately 200 employees of Oltchim protested in front of the plant on Tuesday, after activity stopped at the three departments where production had resumed in November 2012, due to the lack of raw materials.

Meanwhile, the minister of the economy Varujan Vosganian keeps giving assurances that the solution the government is going with is the privatization of the company.

Varujan Vosganian reiterated the intention of the Ministry of the Economy to privatize the company as a first solution, together with Arpechim Piteşti, at a meeting with leaders of unions in the petrochemical and chemical industry, according to a press release sent yesterday.

During the talks, minister Varujan Vosganian told the union representatives the conclusions of the first talk he had