Bulgarian railway workers call off strikeDec 17 (Reuters) - Workers at Bulgaria's indebted state railway operator BDZ on Saturday called off a three-week nationwide strike against plans to cut jobs to try to secure a 230 million euro World Bank loan.19 Dec 11 Laborstart The trade unions and BDZ's management said they had reached an agreement on a new labour contract that will ensure the salaries of the workers and also allow for reforms in the ailing railway. A final deal will be signed on Monday. The strike, which ran for eight hours each day with minimum services available, affected thousands of passengers who travel by train daily and caused losses of some 2.5 million levs ($1.67 million)to BDZ. The World Bank loan will help BDZ, which employs 13,000 people, to repay some of its debts, which amount to 800 million levs, and thus improve its balance sheet. The European Union's poorest member needs to revamp its Soviet-era railways and poor road infrastructure to attract foreign investors and increase tourism revenues as the economy slows. ($1 = 1.4994 Bulgarian levs) (Reporting by Tsvetelia Tsolova and Irina Ivanova) |
