Bulgarian Railroads Strike Goes on, Train Schedule Resumed

The strike at the Bulgarian BDZ Freight Services ended on its 21st day with the signing of a collective bargaining agreement between the management and the syndicates. Photo by bGNES

Even though the strike in Bulgaria's State Railways (BDZ) has entered its 23rd day on Friday, the railways' governing body has decided to resume the schedule of the trains it halted.

Last week, BDZ's management decided stop on their own all trains in the country between 8 am and 4 pm because the ones traveling have no passengers which is sinking the company even further. The protesting syndicates blamed the management of strike "lockout."

Due to the constantly decreasing number of striking workers, the management has decided to resume operation of a total of 166 halted trains, Chairman of BDZ's Board of Directors Vladimir Vladimirov told the Bulgarian National Radio early on Friday.

"If they try to stop the trains, we will continue trying to persuade them. After all, we want to achieve some breakthrough," Vladimirov commented regarding the strikers' potential reaction.

The Chair of the railways branch of the Confederation of Independent Syndicates in Bulgaria, KNSB, Petar Bunev, was positive that the strike was not over. Approximately 40% of Friday's trains will be stopped by striking workers, Bunev believes.

Starting 10:00 am on Friday, the management and the syndicates will negotiate the new collective labor contract for employees of the company's passenger trains.

The labor unions staged an effective, mass, termless strike after the early November notice of the management of the heavily indebted state-owned railway company BDZ Holding that it intended to lay off 2 000 workers, and reduce the number of trains in operation by 150 (later scaled down to 138) by January 2012.

In addition, ticket prices along state-subsidized routes will be increased by 9% as of January 1, 2012, and those of "business trains", i.e. the handful of profitable railway routes in Bulgaria – by 15% as December 1, 2011.

More than 1 030 workers have already agreed to leave on their own in exchange of 6 monthly salaries.

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