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| NEW PROTESTS 14/03/2008 |
| (2008-03-14) |
| Last updated: 2008-03-17 17:32 EET |
Romania is in for a new series of union protests. Transporters will initiate a labour conflict in early April unless an agreement is signed, which includes a number of demands and which will be presented to Transport Minister Ludovic Orban. Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Haulers Union in Romania, Constantin Isac, told us more:
“We've requested the cancellation of the road tax, the rovignette, because the quality of roads does not reflect appropriate spending of this money. This is the main issue. If the money collected so far has failed to improve the quality of roads, we’ve resolved to no longer pay it until there are clear financial management policies, road quality control and improvement programmes.”
In turn, minister Ludovic Orban believes some demands are not strictly within the Ministry of Transport’s competence, while others are unrealistic.
“For instance, the cancellation of the road tax. You cannot ask for better transport infrastructure and at the same time deprive the authorities of their main source of funding. Negotiation and dialogue are the most important, and I firmly believe that as long as they are carried out reasonably, we will find some common ground, so as to manage to improve the transport infrastructure, the relevant regulations and the way these regulations are enforced.”
The rovignette is not the only road tax in Romania. In 1997, another road tax was introduced by the then-Minister of Transport Traian Basescu, currently President of Romania. The tax was named after him, and was intended to help fund road repair works. Protests at the time, going as far as the blocking of roads by road haulers, went unnoticed: the tax stayed, although under a different name. These protests on the part of those in the transport industry aren’t isolated occurrences. The trade union within Automobile Dacia (held by Renault Group) announced an all-out strike for later this month.
Their demands include a pay rise of approximately 150 Euros for all employees. How did this situation come about, given that Renault is a western European company of great international standing, especially after it launched its Logan model, made in Pitesti, southern Romania? Research indicates that Romania is ten times cheaper than Western Europe in terms of labour costs. PricewaterhouseCoopers, for instance, says that every euro invested in salaries offers a return of 1.4 euros in Romania, as opposed to just 1.1 euros in West European countries.
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