Tens of thousands of buses will not commute in Hungary before Christmas

Employees of national coach company Volánbusz will start a two-day strike on Sunday to protest against the absence of plans for higher pay in 2024.

The Szolidaritás union said it is organising the strike action. Volánbusz told MTI that none of the other “nearly 20” unions representing its employees supported the strike.

Volánbusz said it would provide minimum services on Sunday and Monday, with information about the cancelled services published on its website. According to 168.hu, on Sunday, 80% of the bus lines will remain active and that rate will fall to 55% on Monday. They promised to share the lines concerned on their website. According to the state-owned bus company, they calculated 23,000 cancelled buses during the 2-day-long protest. However, they hope that not every Szolidaritás union member will join the strike.

The company also said it would appeal against a primary ruling that approved the planned strike action as legitimate.

They believe the strike is unprovoked because they kept their agreement signed last year. Therefore, they believe no unions could begin a strike this year. They added that the satisfaction of their employees is one of their primary aims. Thus, they hope a new agreement about pay rises can be signed by 20 January 2024.

The Szolidaritás said they remained open for talks.

We wrote about the debate between the trade union and the company in THIS article.

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