In Armenia, railway employees go on strike

The movement of passenger and freight trains along the South Caucasus Railway was paralyzed because of a strike. Locomotive drivers demand to increase their salaries.

Employees of the South Caucasus Railway do not come to work for the second day already, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has been informed by Ruben Grdzelyan, the press secretary for the South Caucasus Railway. According to him, the strikers demand to increase their salaries by 30%, despite the fact that over the past eight months, the average salary of an electric locomotive driver has been 364,000 drams (about 764 US dollars). Ruben Grdzelyan did not mention the number of strikers.

"These actions of locomotive drivers and their assistants violate the labour law and can be considered as absence without leave," stated Ruben Grdzelyan.

He has reported that neither passenger nor freight trains are operated because of the strike. The routes from Yerevan to Tbilisi, as well as intercity trains, are cancelled. Ticket sales have been suspended, and money has already been returned for the tickets already purchased, Ruben Grdzelyan says.

The strike is being carried out by employees of the locomotive depot of the city of Gyumri, the Armenian edition "24News" reports today with reference to Ruben Grdzelyan.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on October 23, 2019 at 04:33 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.