FOCUS: Bucharest Subway Strike - Political Games At People’s Expense

While people working in the private sector have lost their jobs or had their salaries lowered, the Bucharest subway's 4,000 employees demand bigger wages, saying productivity increased 33% over the past year.

People started going to work or school as early as 6-7 a.m. and up until about 7.30 a.m., the road public transport company RATB managed to fill the gap with 200 extra buses, trolleys and trams it sent out. Still, public transport was a lot more crowded than on regular days and it wasn't long before people had to wait dozens of minutes before they could even get on a bus.

Because many people took cabs or drove their personal cars, the already stuffy Romanian capital soon turned into one big traffic jam.

"The subway company isn't going to pay for my cab fare. My boss won't tolerate my being late for work because of a traffic jam. I've had my salary reduced this year because of the economic crisis and they want raises. This is not fair," said one angry citizen.

Others showed more understanding to subway employees, saying that maybe they deserve to be paid more because they work in difficult conditions.

"I'm waiting for the bus, what else can I do? I don't own a car. Oh well, maybe subway employees are right," said one lady who started work a 10 a.m. and had a fair chance of getting there on time after taking two buses.

The subway strike is very profitable for cab companies, but even so, their clients end up being stuck for hours in traffic jams. Traffic police can't really do anything to alleviate traffic, as Bucharest gets jammed every day, with or without a subway strike.

"I don't usually drive to work, but I had to take the car out today and it takes me double the time to get to work than if I had taken the subway. Who's paying for my gas and the nerves I wreck in this horrid traffic?" said another citizen.

The subway company's management has already taken up its employees' action to court and called for the strike to be ruled illegal. The company management said the country is undergoing an economic crisis, it doesn't have a full-power Government and there's no room for wage negotiations.

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.

Subway union leader Ion Radoi has been a social democrat deputy and then senator, and has been a simple Social Democratic Party member since 2008. 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 welcomed with yet another strike, which was 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, and now want a new raise, of about 20%.

The social democrat union leader denies any political involvement and says employees have every right to get raises because their labor productivity has increased.

Radoi said Monday subway employees have an average base wage (net of bonuses, indemnities and other salary rights) of 1,600 lei (EUR1=RON4.2962) 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.

"The 4,250 employees of Metrorex want wages that are double what the company makes. Therefore, the subway's 650,000 daily passengers can't use it as of Tuesday because these 4,250 people want raises. I think less than 0.1% of daily subway passengers have salaries that match those of subway workers," Berceanu said Monday after dismissing unionists' wage demands.

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