National protest of transport workers closed 3 key intersections in Sofia

Today, a national protest of transport workers took place under the slogan “Decent work – decent pay! Without transport, there is no economy!”. It covered three key intersections at Eagle Bridge, on Blvd. “Dragan Tsankov”, Blvd. “Evlogi Georgiev”, Pl. “Macedonia” and lasted over 4 hours. More than 1500 workers from "Sofia Electrical Transport" JSC, "Sofia Auto Transport" JSC, "Metropolitan" JSC, "Urban Transport" - Varna, "Municipal Transport" Ruse, and EAAA joined the protest.

The workers demand BGN 40.7 million, which will be sufficient for about a 15% increase in salaries, or: BGN 400 to the basic wages in urban transport in Sofia, with BGN 300 for urban transport in Varna, as well as for an increase in wages in municipal transport in Ruse and the Executive Agency "Automobile Administration".

The protest rally reached the Ministry of Finance, where unfortunately no one wished to receive the protesters.

The Federation of Transport and Trade Unions at the CITUB managed to submit their protest declaration to the Minister of Finance.

The protest ended in front of the Sofia Municipality, where the protesters were also not received for a meeting, thus declaring their strike readiness.

FTTU-CITUB calls for dialogue between institutions, where the ministry, municipality, and unions find a solution for ensuring the demanded increase in work salaries.

Tension at the protest of employees from urban transport escalated, and protesters headed towards the “Vasil Levski Stadium” metro station, where they entered and organized a symbolic underground procession in the trains. The procession passed through the “Sofia University” metro station and subsequently returned back to Blvd. “Dragan Tsankov”.

On site was forged a symbolic ladder, which participants planned to place in front of the Ministry of Finance. On it, the main demands were inscribed: “Dialogue”, “Salaries”, and “Incomes”.

Protesters built a “Pyre of Burning Hopes”, where they burned signs with inscriptions like “Personal life”, “Labor rights”, “Decent pay”, “Compliance with working hours”.