Trains to be hit by Friday strike

Train services will be seriously disrupted tomorrow, as a national one-day strike called by the Liga union federation begins at midnight Thursday.

The militant rail workers union VDSZSZ, whose leader István Gaskó also heads the Liga alliance, will be on strike. VDSZSZ represents about 25% of rail workers.

Several Liga member unions have pulled out of Friday's general strike. The VDSZSZ has asked the Public Road Transport Union, also a Liga member, not to break the rail strike if it does not join the work stoppage.

Volán buses will accept rail passes and tickets booked in advance to help inconvenienced passengers. Budapest public transport company BKV will redeploy many of its vehicles in anticipation of high passenger volume due to the rail strike. No agreement was reached on skeleton services at MÁV during talks on Wednesday.

The head of one public transport workers union said they will not join the strike appeal as long as there is hope that the unions can reach an agreement in negotiations. A second public transport workers union said they will not distance themselves from the strike, nor will they take part in it.

Short strikes are also planned for tomorrow in education, security services and in Békés county public transport. Some employees of a refrigerator factory in Szabolcs county will also join the strike.

Gábor Kerpen, head of the Democratic Union of Teachers, the smaller of Hungary's two teachers' unions, said the teachers' participation in the strike will be among the highest. He called Education Minister István Hiller irresponsible for refusing to hold talks about skeleton services.

The strike has been called to protest against the government austerity measures, which organisers say will cause a 30% loss of earnings to working people.

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