Catering service staff strike may affect 18-20 international trains

A strike announced for August 29 by the catering services of the Hungarian state railways MÁV may affect 18-20 international trains, MÁV said on Monday.

The VDSzSz union of railway workers announced a work stoppage by catering service workers from 8am until 11pm on Tuesday, to force MÁV to abandon its plans of terminating couchette and restaurant wagons aimed at offsetting their loss-making operation over the past years, the deputy leader of the union told MTI.

The measure would lead to a more than 50 percent cut in the service’s staff, Balázs Bárány said, adding that the union demanded to know how had the catering service turned from a previously profitable unit into a loss-making operation. MAV told MTI that it would either terminate or reduce catering and sleeper services in international trains in a cost- cutting effort as of December 10. It said it had informed the railway services of partner countries, as well as coordinated with several local unions on future employment of catering service workers.

The reduction will affect several international trains, MÁV said adding that its Metropol EuroNight service will be operated only to Prague instead of Berlin from the winter.

It, however, will not affect the international Adria, Beograd, Dacia, Hungaria, Kálmán Imre, Varsovia és Wiener Walzer services, MÁV said.

NO MORE SLEEPING- AND BUFFET CARS ON MÁV INTERNATIONAL TRAINS

As we wrote before, MÁV-Start is terminating the buffet- and sleeping cars from December 10 (this is when the 2017-2018 schedule starts). MÁV-Start told MTI on Monday that the decision had to be made for the sake of economic operation.

Photo: Daily News Hungary

Source: MTI