The employees of the public transport in Sofia are collecting signatures to prepare a petition for indefinite strike action. This was announced to BTA by the Federation of Transport Unions at the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions (CTU) and the Federation of Transport Workers at the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions "Podkrepa".
The chairman of the Federation of Transport Unions (FTS) at the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions (CTU), Alexander Shopov, told BTA that signatures are being collected from all employees of the public transport in Sofia. This includes the employees of "Metropolitan" EAD, specified Shopov. He explained that a large part of the employees have already signed, and the work on collecting signatures continues.
Chairman of the Federation of Transport Workers at the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions “Support” Ivan Kirilov told BTA that the collection of signatures is ongoing, and within two days it is expected that the requirement for signatures from half of the workers in public transport will be fulfilled. Kirilov explained that the signature is for a strike under the Law on the Settlement of Collective Labor Disputes.
Ivan Kirilov pointed out that ”the workers' protest will continue on Saturday and Sunday, unless some miracle happens”. According to Kirilov, the protesters are expecting an invitation to a meeting from the Sofia Municipality. Kirilov believes that Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev “broke” the negotiations and social dialogue. We consider yesterday's negotiations to have failed, because of the condition he set, he also said.
Land transport in Sofia continues to be on strike today, the metro is running more frequently, with reduced intervals and with more locomotives. The protest of the employees of the ground public transport in the capital began on Wednesday under the slogan “Decent work – decent pay! Without transport there is no economy“.