Romanian Subway Employees Back To Work, Resume Strike Wednesday

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

The capital’s road public transport company RATB sent out all its available vehicles to fill the gap caused by the subway strike, but the city’s streets couldn’t fit the extra one third of the population that usually takes the subway, which led to numerous traffic jams and angered most people who got out of the house.

People owning stores inside subway stations complained they lost more than half the day’s earnings because of the strike.

Subway unionists are expecting the Bucharest Court of Appeals to rule Thursday on the legitimacy of their strike and are set on resuming protests in January if the court suspends their action.

The Bucharest court is expected to rule Wednesday on a complaint submitted by the subway company’s management over the strike’s legitimacy.