Bulgarian Govt Makes Final Pleas to Unions before Railway Strike

The railways will suffer more than anybody else from the upcoming mass strike, Bulgarian Transport Minister Alexander Tsvetkov has stated hoping to dissuade the trade unions from holding it.

The railway unions are massively opposed to a government plan for the restructuring of the railway sector inspired by a loan agreement with the World Bank, which will lead to the layoffs of about 7 000 workers by 2014 out of some 28 000 currently employed in the Bulgarian railways.

Meanwhile, speaking Wednesday morning, the railway syndicates confirmed their plan for a strike starting by stopping all trains on Thursday, March 10, for one hour as a warning and beginning an effective strike on March 11, from 8 am till 4 pm every day, which is to last until workers' demands are met.

Their confirmation came regardless of the fact that in a last-ditch effort the government has invited them to continued talks.

For the time being, the strike is intended to be unlimited in time. It can be terminated as soon as an agreement is reached even though none appears to be in sight.

"I hope the strike will be prevented since our positions are coming closer – not so much on social issues but more with respect to the development of the Bulgarian railways, the investments, and repairs," Transport Minister Tsvetkov said.

He continued sticking to his claims that there will be no 30% layoff in the railways because many of the workers are about to retire anyway, and nobody will be hired in their place.

Tsvetkov also declared that the railways management will provide alternative transport with buses to the passengers affected by the strike.

The strike is said to be to the detriment of the workers themselves since it would affect the ability of the two state railway companies to pay out salaries.

The strike committees in the two state railway companies BDZ and National Company Railway Infrastructure (NKZI) received Tuesday an invitation from the government to hold final talks Wednesday afternoon, just hours before thousands of railway workers are expected to start a mass strike on Thursday, March 10.

Over 80% of the workers of NKZI and 73% of the workers of BDZ are ready to take part in the mass strike.

Up to 7000 railway workers might be laid off from the two state companies as Bulgaria is bidding to receive a badly needed loan of BGN 600 M for the sector from the World Bank – BGN 460 M for BDZ, which handles the passenger and freight traffic, and BGN 140 M for the NKZI, which is in charge of the railway infrastructure.

The situation of BDZ is particularly grave as the company's total debts amount to BGN 1 B; last week the Cabinet decided to provide the company with a state loan of BGN 140 M to cover its current debt payments.

The World Bank is ready to provide the BGN 600 M loan (for which a memorandum was signed in December 2010 in Sofia) to Bulgaria on the condition that the spending for personnel for BDZ and NKZI are reduced by 30%. The companies employ a total of 27 000 people, and up to 7 000 are expected to lose their jobs if the World Bank offer is accepted.

NKZI has already laid off 1 026 people in the past year, and will have to lay off 2 944 more by 2014, while BDZ will have to make redundant 2 800.

The syndicates, however, are extremely worried, and say that NKZI actually plans to lay off 2000 more people in the period between 2014-2016. What is more, they claim the World Bank insists that some of Bulgaria's unprofitable railway lines be shut down.

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