Workers and employees at Bulgaria's troubled State-owned Railway Company BDZ Holding confirmed Tuesday they are starting an effective strike on November 24.

The strike had already been scheduled for Thursday from 8 am to 4 pm, but the railway labor unions informed at a special press conference Tuesday that the strike now will be termless – all trains will be halted every day between those hours.

Bulgaria's railway unions have vowed to stage a mass strike after the early November announcement of the management of the heavily-indebted BDZ company that it intended to lay off 2 000 workers, and reduce the number of trains in operation by 150 by January 2012, all while train fares would go up between 9% and 15%.

The syndicates insist the planned layoffs will throw thousands on the street, dooming them to famine and impossibility to survive; to marginalizing and humiliation of their families. In a special declaration, issued Tuesday, they further apologize for the inconveniences the strike will create, but stress this is their only way for protection left.

The Confederation of Independent Syndicates in Bulgaria (KNSB) at BDZ appealed to the management to "bury the tomahawk" and sit on the negotiations table. KNSB claim the goal is to destroy the railways and then sell them for next to nothing.

Speaking in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television, BNT, Tuesday, the Chair of the BDZ Board of Directors, Vladimir Vladimirov, declared the management is unwavering about implementing the reform. He said the strike will cost BGN 600 000 a day, which would further sink the company, adding attorneys are working on grounds to declare it illegal.

A while ago, Transport Minister, Ivaylo Moskovski, promised that in case of a railway strike, those affected will be bused.

BDZ has a debt of BGN 800 M and has become the subject of an investigation by the European Commission.

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