Strike Threatens to Bring Bulgarian Trains to Halt

Employees of the Bulgarian railroads are staging a nationwide strike over looming mass layoffs. File phot

Trains in Bulgaria are coming to a halt on March 20, the railroad workers trade unions at the Confederation of the Bulgarian Syndicates, KNSB, and "Podkrepa" (Support) announced Saturday.

The trains will stop running over a strike at the State-owned Bulgarian Railroad Company, BDZ.

Two meetings between the BDZ and Railroad Infrastructure company managements and the labor unions were held during the week in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the strike.

"It became evident during the meetings that BDZ have nothing substantial to offer us, so the strike is on the table," the Chair of the Strike Committee of the BDZ labor union, Dimitar Danev, informs.

The plan is to stop all trains on Thursday, March 10, for one hour as a warning and begin an effective strike on March 11 to last until workers' demands are met. The decision was triggered by the two railroad companies' failure to fulfill major class labor contract clauses.

The workers are also alarmed by the contract for the restructuring of BDZ signed with the World Bank, which provides for the layoff of thousands of employees. The labor unions say the loan will not be used for modernizing the railroads, but to cover outstanding debts.

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