Metro unions are threatening a general strike. “We are doing what we know best, fighting, going to the streets, union struggle. ” – HotNews.ro

Metrou trade unions are threatening to strike around the presidential elections, when it will be 45 years since the first underground section was put into use, if they do not reach an agreement with Metrorex bosses regarding the contract general work, reports. Agerpres.

The Bucharest metro union has extended negotiations with Metrorex management on the collective labor agreement until October 31, with another round to be held on Monday, and in case the negotiations fail in a maximum of three weeks, a general strike could be triggered, he said on Sunday, the president of the Free Metro Union (USLM), Marian Artimon.

“We argued, they still haven’t done that, and we gave them another chance until October 31 to negotiate again. If not, we start doing what we know best, fighting, going to the streets, union struggle, because it is not possible. When he has a law that says you take away your rights, he takes them away, and when he has a law that makes him give you rights, he forgets to give them to you. We are not arguing over nonsense, we want the money due, which they are obliged by law to give us: that is, an index, not a wage increase, an index with a rate inflation and the lowest wages in Europe. that we boast about it so strongly when we go to the OECD at the European level, and when we have to give them to the citizens, to the workers, we forget to give them. We have a law that says that the rank of railway workers has a certain salary level according to the total minimum wage for the economy. As long as that guy went up 1,050 lei, he had to go up 1,050 lei for us too. By sending them, it means that we will still be maids with the system of qualified railway workers”, said Artimon.

The head of the union said that a new series of discussions should be held on Monday, at 11:00 am, with Metrorex management.

“We proposed a new round of negotiations tomorrow, at 11:00 am, at Metrorex headquarters, and they have to confirm us. I gave an extension until the 31st. We hope we understand each other. We still have a couple of things to sort out and they understand that it is their legal obligation to provide this money. If I don’t take them, it’s malpractice. I don’t think they want to go to jail because they don’t want to obey the law,” he said.

According to Marian Artimon, if the negotiations fail, within a maximum of three weeks, the trade unions from the metro could go on strike just on the day that Metrorex celebrates 45 a year since the first section of the Bucharest metro was commissioned, that is 19 November 1979.

“If we don’t agree, we will start picketing, mediation, consultation and, if we still don’t agree, in a maximum of 3 weeks we can reach the real strike. On November 19, Metrorex turned 45 years of activity and we also celebrated the days since we activated the subway through a strike. We still hope that, at the beautiful age of 45, we will succeed in doing something beautiful for the traveling public. We always think of the citizens because they are the masters, they are the ones who ride the train and, since they ride the subway, usually the state should to pay you a subsidy. If the state refuses to pay, we can only unite, to punish the state for not keeping its word”, said Artimon.

In 2021, underground union strike traffic paralysis in Bucharest.