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Union Protest Blocks Bucharest Subway, Causing Major Transport Disruption


Members of the subway trade union staged the protest over a conflict with management of subway company Metrorex.
Members of the subway trade union staged the protest over a conflict with management of subway company Metrorex.

Protesting subway workers occupied tracks in a station in Bucharest on March 26, blocking trains from running and disrupting public transport in the Romanian capital.

Members of the subway trade union staged the protest over a conflict with management of subway company Metrorex, which on March 25 said it would shut down underground kiosks that it said were a fire hazard.

Eighty percent of the lucrative kiosks and other commercial spaces are owned by the subway trade union USLM.

"Although unionists implied they have a list of demands, repeated invitations to meet with the company's management were completely ignored during the night," Metrorex said in a statement.

The subway underpins public transport in the Romanian capital, helping to ease the notorious traffic in the city of more than 2.5 million, which is currently struggling to contain a fresh wave of coronavirus infections.

With reporting by Reuters
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