site.btaNo Agreement Reached in Meeting with Sofia Municipality, Say Transport Trade Unions

No agreement was reached during the meeting between Sofia Mayor Vasil Terziev and the city’s transport workers’ trade unions on Thursday, said Ivan Kirilov, who heads the Federation of Transport Workers (FTW) affiliated with the Podkrepa Labour Confederation. 

The protest of Sofia's surface public transport, which started Wednesday under the slogan “Decent Work – Decent Pay! No Transport, No Economy!”, continued on Thursday, leaving only the underground metro service running. 

The talks were held in connection with the trade unions’ demand for salary increases in the public ground transport sector. Kirilov explained that the trade unions had proposed a salary increase of BGN 300 instead of the previously demanded BGN 400. The Municipality, in turn, offered two options: an increase of BGN 180 to the base salary (up from their initial offer of BGN 100), or the original offer of BGN 100 for all four transport companies, with the bonuses for bus and electric transport workers doubled.

“We now have to meet with all workers currently at the depots and inform them of the details discussed at this meeting,” Kirilov said. “They will decide within the next two to three hours whether the public ground transport will be halted again tomorrow [Friday].”

Kirilov noted that Sofia’s Mayor had invited the trade unions to further negotiations — on the condition that the transport workers end Thursday’s blockade. When asked whether the underground metro might also stop tomorrow, Kirilov said this would become clear later but added that the trade unions would do everything possible to allow Sofia “to breathe” and to keep the metro running.

“We’ve brought the dialogue back to the negotiating table — not to the streets,” said Alexander Shopov, Chair of the Federation of Transport Trade Unions (FTTU) affiliated with the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB). Shopov added that union representatives would now visit every depot to speak with the protesting workers. He thanked Mayor Terziev for the meeting and for the offer to continue the dialogue. “The increase from BGN 100 to BGN 180 is at least some progress,” Shopov noted.

He apologized to citizens for the disruption caused in recent days, but said the workers’ protest was a matter of dignity. Shopov also criticized attempts to politicize the protest, calling on those responsible to meet directly with workers to understand that their demands are focused on fair pay and improved working conditions.