Bilbao’s city council has asked the commission to lift the indefinite strike they are maintaining, a possibility rejected by workers’ representatives “until there is an agreement.”
The Bilbao City Council has informed the Bilbobus Commission that it will resolve the contract with the service concession company. Biobidewithin a maximum period of three months, and asked him to lift the indefinite strike they are maintaining, a possibility rejected by the workers’ representatives, as confirmed by the committee.
On Monday, at the request of the city council, the commission and the Bilbao City Council held a technical meeting to discuss this conflict, which had been going on for months.
After numerous partial and 24-hour strikes, the committee decided a indefinite strikefrom Monday to Friday, which started last April 9with the aim of achieving an improvement in the working conditions of Bilbobus employees, whose contracts have not been updated since 2021.
The chairman of the committee, Jose Fernandez, stated that during that conversation the municipal council informed them that it would opt for termination of the contract, for which a maximum period of three months would apply. A transitional contract would then be provided until the final decision is made, which could involve a new tender, although this has not yet been defined.
Fernández has indicated that they were therefore told by the city council that they needed time and requested that the strike be called off. However, the committee rejected this possibility, although it was open to negotiations to find solutions to this conflict.
‘We are going to hold the meetings that are necessary’ for this purpose, but the indefinite strike, from Monday to Friday – weekends are not included – will continue “until there is an agreement”, said the chairman of the Bilbobus Commission.
On the other hand, he has indicated that the strike committee is “completely opposite” sabotage of buses and non-compliance with minimum services, and has indicated that this is not justified.
José Fernández added that this is certainly the case “very easy to blame others” and has denounced that during the last months of mobilizations “many people have looked the other way” because “70% of the services have been taken away and sabotaged for months” that should have been given to citizens if not for the strike . “necessary.” “.
On Monday, Biobide, Bilbobus’ concession company, reported that several sabotages had taken place on buses with the aim of preventing compliance with minimum services, leaving, it was said, between 5 and 10 vehicles out of 38 in circulation. which had to be in operation during the morning shift of that day.
He stated, among other things, that six buses had broken windows and two others had flat tires, that paint had been thrown and vinyl had been applied to the windows and interiors of several vehicles, and that 65 power disconnects had been stolen.
Bilbao’s municipal bus service is operated by Biobide (ALSA-Transitia) and the employees believe that it is making cuts by writing off jobs, signing temporary contracts and reducing salary supplements, which is contrary to the agreement.
Source: EITB

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