Romanian Railway Workers Threaten To Go On General Strike In March

Union leader Gheorghe Fratica told MEDIAFAX local union leaders across the country have agreed to trigger the conflict procedure and await conciliation.

"We'll probably halt activity at the beginning of March because I don't think anything will be fixed with conciliation procedures. We want to sign new collective work contracts and we won't accept any more wage reductions or collective layoffs," Fratica said.

Iulian Mantescu, another union leader, said Monday after talks with the International Monetary Fund, the Fund agrees with the restructuring of railway companies and the privatization of freight rail company CFR Marfa, arguing the Government says this is the only solution for the country's railway sector.

"Unions do not agree with a new restructuring because the system has been through several restructuring processes over the past 20 years and now has 50,000 employees from 230,000," Mantescu said, adding unions are also against the privatization of CFR Marfa, arguing it will probably be sold for too low a price because of the crisis.

He also said about 6,000 railway employees risk losing their jobs in March and April under the Government's restructuring plans and unions are determined to use all the instruments they have to prevent that.

Mantescu also said Romania's railway system currently employs 56,000 people with an average net salary of 1,600 lei (EUR1=RON4.2536) per month in 2010 and collective work contracts expired on January 31.

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