Sofia Public Transport Workers to Protest Again: See When

Public transport workers in Sofia will stage another protest on Monday, April 14, with plans to block three major intersections in the capital. The demonstration is driven by demands for a salary increase.

Following three rounds of talks with Sofia Municipality and 17 consultations with employees from the three municipal transport companies, the leadership of the unions "Podkrepa" and CITUB announced their decision to proceed with protest actions.

Employees from the capital "Autotransport" and the Urban Mobility Center are expected to block "Orlov" Bridge, while those from the capital "Electrotransport" will shut down the intersection at "Macedonia" Square. Meanwhile, "Metropolitan" workers will block the junction of "Dragan Tsankov" Blvd. and "Evlogi i Hristo Georgievi" Blvd. After the initial roadblocks, the protesters will converge in front of the Ministry of Finance and later in front of Sofia Municipality.

The key demand of the protesting employees is a fixed and equal raise in base salaries for all workers in the public transport sector. They have rejected Sofia Municipality’s proposal of a 100 leva monthly increase as insufficient.

According to municipal calculations, any raise beyond 100 leva would significantly widen the budget deficit. The current proposal would already increase the deficit by an estimated 20 million leva. Despite this, the Federation of Transport Unions under the CITUB continues to call for state intervention, insisting that the government must take responsibility for urban transport and provide financial support to the municipality to ensure adequate wage increases.