Railway trade unions seek Government guarantees to call off strike

Bulgarian state railways BDZ may decide not to go on strike if trade unions are given guarantees of investments in the sector over the next four years from the country's Prime Minister Boiko Borissov and Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov, a trade union representative said.

"If we receive such guarantees, we will surely head to an agreement, which, however, does not mean that there will be no strike," Plamen Dimitrov, vice president of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), told Bulgarian National Radio (BNR).

Two weeks ago, railway trade unions said that BDZ and the National Railroad Infrastructure Company (NRIC) will commence a one-hour warning strike on March 10 and declare a full strike the next day, with trains stopping from 8am until 4pm.

The strike was triggered by planned job cuts at the railways, which was one of the conditions for obtaining a 600 million leva loan from the World Bank, aimed at overhauling the sector.

According to Deputy Transport Minister Kamen Kichev, a strike would lead to "a catastrophic decline in revenue" for NRIC and BDZ and also make it impossible to pay salaries.

BDZ said earlier that a railway strike would mean a loss of 550 000 leva a day.