Hundreds of Metrorex employees protest over wages

More than 700 employees of the subway company Metrorex gathered outside the Transport Ministry in Bucharest office protesting the management’s refusal to negotiate their wages.

Unionists want a 26% wage increase and are upset about the refusal they got from Metrorex management to renegotiate their collective labor contract, which expires on November 1 because the company's budget for next year has not been approved yet.

Employees who are working took part in the demonstration, so subway traffic in Bucharest is not affected.

Unionists have threatened to stage a general strike as of November 1 unless their problems are solved and the action could lead to outright chaos on the capital city's streets because the subway carries more than half a million passengers daily out of Bucharest's 2 million inhabitants.