site.btaSofia's Surface Transport Strike Enters Third Day, Likely to Continue

Sofia’s surface-transport strike under the slogan “Decent Work – Decent Pay! No Transport, No Economy!” continued into its third day on Friday, Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria's (CITUB) Federation of Transport Trade Unions and Podkrepa Confederation of Labour's Federation of Transport Workers told the Bulgarian News Agency. Public transport workers in Sofia are protesting for higher pay. As talks with the Sofia Mayor - whom they hold responsible for finding a solution - and the Finance Ministry reach a deadlock, they are threatening to escalate their actions into a full-blown, indefinite strike that would also affect the underground train service. 

Sofia Mayor Vassil Terziev proposed to make a comprehensive analysis of all companies in the capital transport in a Nova Television interview on Friday morning. "The aim is to see if there are bloated administration costs, if there can be one operator and not four companies," he explained, adding that there is no way to take money out of the Municipality's capital programme to be given for salaries, because it concerns projects on which work has already started. 

Terziev recalled that the gross salary of a driver in the metro is BGN 4,600, and this amount does not include overtime. Bonuses in transport are between BGN 250 and 500, with an average of 291. 

Sofia's transport workers will not agree to a salary increase lower than BGN 300, said Ivan Kirilov, Chair of the Federation of Transport Workers with the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour and BSP for Bulgaria  municipal councillor. Speaking to bTV on Friday, he added that the protest is not demanding any resignations.

Vasil Terziev said later in the day that there will be no surface public transport over the weekend, but the underground railway system (metro) will continue to operate. "There is an invitation to the unions for [a meeting on] Monday, but my condition is clear - public transport must be restored, and Sofia residents should not bear the cost of when we manage to meet," Terziev said in response to a question about negotiations with the trade unions. 

The Save Sofia party said that it is an opportunity for reforms to "finally modernize public transport" and suggested a plan in five steps, which they have proposed to Terziev. Their proposal plan includes increase in salaries of the most scarce positions (drivers and mechanics), purchase of new vehicles (buses, trolleybuses and trams), more funds in the budget for repairs of the tram network and the separation of BUS lanes and corridors for public transport, reform of transport companies and their subsequent merger into a single city operator, parking reform, financing public transport and construction of parking lots. 

What is happening in the capital's public transport is sabotage, said Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) on Friday. In the National Assembly, MPs Lena Borislavova, Bozhidar Bozhanov and Stela Nikolova, Sofia Municipal Council Chair Tsvetomir Petrov and CC-DB municipal councillor Boyko Dimitrov gave a joint briefing on the surface transport protest in Sofia. "What is happening with the capital's public transport is clearly sabotage," said Bozhanov. GERB are not happy that they are not running the capital, and are trying to punish the Sofia residents, Lena Borislavova said of the warning that garbage collection in eight metropolitan boroughs could stop from May 19.

Earlier on Friday, Borissov described as "absurd" the claims that GERB was behind the protest of the surface transport employees in Sofia. "Where is my fault that nothing has happened in Sofia for two years," he told journalists in the National Assembly on Friday. 

Children's right to education and the right of adults to access to the workplace is limited, reads a position paper of the Union of the Heads of the National Education System in Bulgaria (UHNESB) sent to the media on Friday. "For the third day Sofia has no public transport. Thousands of students cannot go to school. Thousands of teachers and non-teaching staff have difficulty getting to their workplaces," the school workers added. 

As the Sofia’s above-ground public transport system was paralyzed for a third day with with no quick solution in sight, people began addressing the situation through public campaigns organized via social media. Mutual aid groups on Facebook, some of them borough-specific, are offering ride-share options. One of the initiatives is about car sharing under the motto “Raise your hand at the bus stop.” It encourages people who find it hard to move around the 1.2 million population city to seek help from strangers. The idea is that a distressed pedestrian can stand at a bust stop and wave their hand to the driver of a car passing by, in the hope of getting a ride. For their part, drivers are asked: “Slow down as you approach a bus stop. You see someone waving at you? Pull over. Ask them where they need to go. Let them hop in. Help them get there.” The appeal ends with: “Keep Sofia moving forward.”