Over 200 trains remain at the stations

The strike of the workers and employees from the Bulgarian State Railways (BDZ) will continue today since the planned talks between trade unions, representatives of the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications (MTITC) and the management of the BDZ holding company were not held. According to information from the MTITC, until the late afternoon, no negotiations had been scheduled, including today.

"Nobody wants to negotiate with us and the strike cannot end without a strike agreement," said Peter Bunev, leader of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB).

The first day of the effective national railway strike began yesterday at 8:00 am and ended at 16:00 hrs. According to data of the trade unions, out of the 264 trains that have to travel across the country, some 218 stopped. This represents 83% of the total number of trains in operation. The remaining 17% of the compositions traveled on short regional lines alone. Workers were on strike both in passenger and freight trains and freight trains were not processed. Their percentage is small because goods are usually transported at night. In the National Railway Infrastructure Company, out of 13,000 employees, merely 563 took part in the strike, and just 61 people were linked with the movement of trains. This represents less than 4% of the total number of employees.

The data for the stopped trains from MTITC, however, totally differed from the information of the trade unions. The statistics of the trade unions showed that about 90% of the trains had not moved during the protest, while the transport department informed that these had been less than 50%. The initial plans were for a total of 186 compositions to stop traveling at 8:00 am at 78 stations in the country.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Railways Holding Company Vladimir Vladimirov, said that only the workers from the Passenger Transport Direction were on strike. He reiterated that the company’s management will carry out the planned reform in the sector.

The railways strike was supported by the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF).

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