No DPP Strike Tuesday but Threat Remains
by Sam Beckwith
Public transport workers in Prague won’t strike on Tuesday as originally feared, and have begun negotiating with city officials — but the threat of industrial action still remains.
Prague Mayor Pavel Bém set up a crisis team over the weekend and pledged to give Dopravní podnik hl. m. Prahy (DPP), the city’s debt-ridden public transportation company, an extra 900 million crowns.
Union leaders representing DPP employees had a “stormy” meeting with Bém’s crisis team today, making seven demands related to the running and financing of city transit.
If those demands aren’t met by Wednesday, union leaders say they will go ahead with the strike but would give 72 hours’ notice of any planned action.
DPP, which runs the city’s trams, buses and metro trains, is reportedly billions of crowns in debt and won’t be able to meet its December wage bill.
Union leaders blame the city of Prague for this situation, for failing to provide DPP with adequate funding and, by striking, hope to show how important public transportation is to the city.
To ease the current crisis, city officials had wanted DPP employees to accept pay cuts, which the unions refused, pointing out that most of their members already earn wages below the Prague average.
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