Bucharest Subway Strike Continues, Court Ruling Expected Wednesday

Transport Minister Radu Berceanu said there is no way he can approve wage hikes citing budget constraints. Besides, the subway company doesn't have an approved budget for 2010 so they can't negotiate wages.

The strike is jamming traffic in the Romanian capital for the second day in a row, as the 600,000-odd people who usually take the subway used ground public transport or took taxis and personal cars.

Subway employees demand 20% wage raises and are set to halt all activity every day until 4 p.m.. They may not halt activity altogether because the law requires them to cover one third of regular activity even during a general strike.

Besides the Bucharest Court's ruling on the legitimacy of the strike expected Wednesday, the Bucharest Court of Appeals is expected to rule Thursday on the subway company management's request to have the strike suspended for a month.

This is the seventh such protest at the subway company since 1990 and all previous general strikes were suspended by courts after four days at the latest. Bucharest has seen subway strikes in 1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999 and 2005.

The strike is widely thought to be politically motivated because union leader Ion Radoi is a member of the Social Democratic Party and has represented the party in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate. His party membership and the fact that social democrats were in power between 2000 - 2004 kept subway employees quiet until 2005, when the change of government was greeted with yet another strike, suspended by a court after two days.

Subway employees had their wages increased 23% last year, after a 25% raise prompted by a warning strike in 2007. The social democrat union leader denies any political involvement and says employees have every right to get the 20% raise they now claim because their labor productivity has increased.

Radoi said Monday that subway employees have an average base wage (net of bonuses, indemnities and other salary rights) of 1,600 lei (EUR1=RON4.2928) but he couldn't say how much money they actually get on average per month. Transport Minister Radu Berceanu said the average gross wage of subway workers is at RON3,600.

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