The National Federation of Commercial Railroads, part of the National Bloc of Trade Unions, publicly announced Wednesday that it will begin a warning strike on the railroads on September 15, 2023. It is noted that the strike will last from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Railway Club.

The protest, according to the press release published by the trade unions, aims to draw attention to the impasse in the social dialogue between the Cheferists and the state. The trade unions specify that the entire court procedure for violation of the labor conflict, in accordance with the norms of the law, has been completed.

“Unfortunately, as has happened in every government that has undertaken to solve the problems of the railway, which, as you know, has been in clinical death for years, we, Seferists, find that the agenda of the politicians who take over the management of the railway does not correspond to the list of priorities , clearly and publicly formulated by the railway worker,” the cited statement reads.

Reasons for starting a warning strike on the railways

• The lack of approved income and expenditure budgets for the current year, which inevitably leads to a general blockade of the railway industry.

• Lack of strategic and coordinated financing of the railway. In order to return the Romanian railway structure to European parameters, an appropriate state project, coordinated with European structures and financed by several tens of billions of euros, is needed. Until now, such a project has not been financed, and the opening of construction sites on transport corridors dedicated to purely European interests leaves the rest of the country in ruins.

• Lack of investment in high-quality, modern rolling stock. There is no clear investment plan for the complete replacement of the fleet of locomotives and wagons with which CFR Călători operates today. It is unlikely that the Romanians will return to the wagons under such conditions. Politicians at the head of the Ministry of Transport should know that exceptions always prove the rule, so a simple photo next to a repaired car does not solve the problem.

• The lack of a fair salary on the railways, a motivational salary that allows changing generations of railway workers. It is rarely mentioned that under such wage conditions, and especially in view of the wrong relations that are being built between the management and railway workers, the state railway companies, strategic units of the Romanian economy, will be left without workers. Already, the shortage of workers exceeds 6,000 people, and the registered overtime hours are in the tens of thousands.

• There are more and more unresolved problems related to the Statute of Railway Personnel, a law passed by the Romanian Parliament, which even today does not create a full set of effects for its beneficiary, the railway worker.