Metrorex and RATB - public transport companies in Bucharest - employees will go on strike out of solidarity with the public sector employees on June 1. Ion Radoi, president of the National Transport Convention from Romania declared that the tube and RATB will only function after 4pm on the day of June 1. As for RATB, union leaders explained that it was decided that only the staff working for the union representing electrical transportation go on strike (trams and trolley buses). The busses could be available, but a final decision has not been met yet.

UPDATE RATB unions announced that the public transportation they make available will be used up to 85%. Only a small number of the employees working for the electrical public transport will be on strike.

Ion Radoi said this morning that both the tube and RATB workers will strike on the 1st of June, starting with 4am. Regarding RATB, union leaders underlined that the bus drivers and staff are represented by a different union and, therefore, it is not known yet if they will join the protest or not. Tubes, trams and trolley buses will not be working until 16:00 o'clock.

Ion Radoi explained that if the authorities are not going to give up the announced austerity measures, they will take action, as will the Metrorex and RATB workers after the warning strike to start a general one.

UPDATE The mayor of Bucharest Sorin Oprescu met with the unionists and the RATB leadership at noon. "My responsibility is for people in Bucharest to arrived at work in civilised circumstances", he said, quoted by Romanian press agency Agerpres. Oprescu says that the Baccalaureate exams are starting on Monday and he said he wanted to have a "civilised" transport, as far as this was possible. Metrorex and RATB - public transport companies in Bucharest - employees will go on strike out of solidarity with the pub