Protesting coal miners and energy workers lifted a roadblock on Struma Motorway, Yordanka Germanova, head of the Podkrepa Confederation of Labour chapter in Dupnitsa, told BTA on Wednesday. This happened after Parliament adopted a resolution in connection with an agreement concluded between Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, cabinet members, MPs and representatives of energy sector trade unions, which satisfies the protesters at this stage.
Struma Motorway was blocked on October 2. In the previous days, protesters obstructed traffic in stages.
Trade unionists commented: "If someone thought the protest would continue until the government fell, they thought wrong - our protest was only about workers' rights."
Miners and energy workers who have been blocking roads in Stara Zagora Region (Southeastern Bulgaria) for six days now told BTA on Wednesday afternoon they were not satisfied with the decisions made on the last two days and did not accept the signed declaration. Their protest is continuing and parts of Trakia Motorway - at the interchange between Stara Zagora and Haskovo - and the Pass of the Republic would remain closed to traffic.
Now the protesters demand, first and foremost, that the government withdraw the Territorial Just Transition Plans submitted to the European Commission on September 30 and resume negotiations on the agreement concluded between Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, cabinet members, MPs and representatives of energy sector. Biser Binev of the Podkrepa trade union at Maritsa East Mines urged workers at the thermal power plants of the Maritsa East Energy Complex to support the protesters.
/RY/
news.modal.text
