Attention! Strike paralyses transport throughout Hungary

The Solidarity bus transport union has called a strike, so there will be no Volánbus services in Hungary on 28-29 January.

István Dobi, president of the Solidarity Bus Transport Trade Union, announced that they will not accept the employer’s wage offer, and therefore announced a two-day strike for 28-29 January. The president added that the strike would be called off immediately if an acceptable offer was made.

The president of the trade union said that they would not accept a multi-year wage agreement, but wanted a one-year deal instead. However, the president also announced a concession: instead of the previous 25 percent wage increase, they will settle for 20 percent.

The Steering Committee ignores the threat by Transport Minister János Lázár, who says he refuses to negotiate under pressure. István Dobi said: the palm grows under pressure, Népszava.hu writes.

It was also decided, he said, that instead of a meeting of the Group-level Stakeholder Council of the MÁV-Volán group, they would like to continue wage negotiations with Volánbusz Zrt. The reason for this is that the wages of Volánbus drivers are significantly lower than those of employees at MÁV-Start, for example.

The wage negotiations will continue on 23 January. So far, nearly 60 percent of the bus drivers, 5978 drivers, have joined the strike.

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