Category Archives: Railways

The program for transportation – the final stage

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Just a few months before the end of the year and thus, of the Operational Program “Transport” 2007 – 2013 (+2), on 24 September 2015 an informative meeting was held in the hotel “Balkan”, Sofia. Management body and state agencies reported the results to the general public – MPs, stakeholders, guests and media. They also expressed their expectation that by the end of the year, the absorption of the available European funds will reach almost 100%.
In his address Minister Moskovski pointed out that even now, having disbursed over 75%, Bulgaria is ahead of a number of European countries. All projects will be completed, he also promised.

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Again, it was reported that the period 2007 – 2013 did not start successfully; substantial progress was made after 2009. FTTUB became part of this process with the participation of President Ekaterina Yordanova as a member of the Monitoring Committee of the program.
Minister Lilyana Palova also greeted the participants of the meeting and said that although his colleague and her not always agreed, the undisputed success is common.
Eng. Galina Vasileva, deputy head of the Managing Authority presented the stage of the work on each priority axe and most importantly – the lessons learned from the difficulties so far. Evidently, the experience has been evaluated and converted into acting capacity. Everything possible has been done not to lose money and to realize the maximum of works.

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The same was reported by the state agencies and companies – contractors on the projects. They appreciated the role of the program to build capacity that was unknown to Bulgaria so far – in infrastructure, as well as in global level modern technologies. “Every station project is unique,” stated St. Bratoev, CEO of the “Metropolitan”. The underground of Sofia was the most successful project in this period which also allowed not losing a lot of European funds. The role of the human factor in the success of each project was also addressed.
FTTUB congratulated all the teams for the excellent cope with the enormous challenge and for creating sustainable jobs and highly qualified specialists. “Each of these projects makes us feel proud of our people, our country and our city” – commented Ekaterina Yordanova expressing the general mood.

Meeting with the Sofia urban transport TU leaders

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Today, 29 July, in the FTTUB premises, the President Ekaterina Yordanova met the trade union leaders of 3 out of the 4 Sofia urban transport enterprises. The “Metropolitan” representative Pavel Dimov was not able to participate due to an emergency situation.
The main agenda item was the readiness of the organizations for the upcoming negotiations on collective agreements, most of which expire at the end of the year. Прочети още →

European social partners for improving the quality of work in the railway sector

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European social partners in railway transport, ETF and CER, launched a joint project “Promoting employment and quality of work in the European rail sector”, financed by the European Commission.

The aim of the project is to study the image, attractiveness, prospects and employment strategies in the sector, and contribute to identifying measures for building Прочети още →

FTTUB: We will not tolerate the harassment of our union leaders

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On Easter eve, the Executive Director of BDZ Holding (Bulgarian railways) Vladimir Vladimirov, unilaterally and without advance notice terminated the contract of the leader of our organization at the holding – Plamena Zhelyazkova. For the past five years, Plamena has been leading the organization of railway workers at BDZ Holding within the Railway Sectoral Trade Union (RSTU), Прочети още →

We all need to stand up for our Right to strike

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On 18 February FTTUB will participate in the Global action day under the motto ‘Hands off our right to strike!’, organized by the International Trade Unions Confederation (ITUC), International Transport workers’ Federation (ITF), Public Services International (PSI) and other international federations representing workers from various sectors.

ITUC has prepared an in-depth analysis of the legal grounds for the right to strike and the role of ILO, which can be read here. The right to strike has been guaranteed as every worker’s legal right ever since ILO’s Convention 87 was adopted back in 1948. Each state which has ratified an ILO convention is bound to observe its regulatioons. Regardless of this, for the last few years the employers have been questioning and undermining this key worker’s right and its legal foundations; and as of today, according to ITUC’s data, workers in 37 countries have been detained for protests or strike activities. Прочети още →

Increasing share of women working in the rail sector

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On 2 February 2015, the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) published their second annual report on the development of women employment in the rail sector in Europe.

The results show that the average share of women working in the rail is increasing and currently stands at around 20%. The differences between countries remain high, with Lithuania employing the biggest Прочети още →

European social partner project “Social Dialogue in the Railway Sector in Western Balkan Countries”

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The European social partners of the railway sector, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) and the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) initiated this project to support the social dialogue in the member states and candidate countries in the Western Balkan region. This project reinforced the impact and visibility of European social dialogue outcomes in the railway sector in the Western Balkan countries. The measures strengthened the capacity of social partners of the target countries Прочети още →

FTTUB will participate in the Advisory Committee for railway safety

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On 24th October at the Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications, representatives of Holding Bulgarian State Railways EAD and the National Railway Infrastructure Company (NRIC) presented their proposals for immediate, mid-term and long-term measures aimed at improving the work flow efficiency and the safety of transport in both companies to Minister Angelkova, Deputy minister Georgi Todorov, the management of Railway Administration Executive Agency (RAEA) and the managements of the nationally representative trade unions. Прочети още →

European Rail workers protest the 4th Railway package

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On October 8th, the so-called ‘political pillar’ of the 4th Railway package was debated at the meeting of European Transport Ministers in Luxembourg. They had to discuss the Commission’s proposal for market opening of national rail passenger services, for submitting all rail passenger public services to competitive tendering and for further restrictions and splitting up integrated railway companies.
The European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) organised a protest action Прочети още →