Romanian Subway Unionists To Call General Strike

Ion Radoi, union leader at Metrorex, Romania’s state-owned subway company, announced that the company’s employees will go on general strike indefinitely as of November 16 if negotiations with management on wage raises fail.

 

If the general strike is triggered, the subway in Bucharest will only cover one third of its regular activity. As a result, trains will only run between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. More than a quarter of the Romanian capital's population takes the subway every day.

 

Metrorex employees are upset because the government has not yet approved the company's 2010 budget and they can't negotiate their collective labor contract and a 26% wage raise.

 

Ion Radoi also announced that subway employees will picket the Government headquarters daily starting Tuesday.