Romania's BCR employees on general strike starting Wednesday. BCR will challenge legality of the protest

Trade unions at the Romanian Commercial Bank – BCR notified the management of the bank that, starting Wednesday, January 14, at 9 am, they will go on general strike, for an unlimited time, a press release of the institution reads. The action is meant to increase the salaries of the workers.

BCR representatives declared for HotNews.ro that there would be some services available during the strike, like self banking and card ATMs. Moreover, some units with 1 or 2 employees will not enter in strike and operations will be conducted.

BCR representatives added that they already set up six proposals for the trade union, mean to offer an adequate salary package and end negotiations to resume operations as fast as possible. However, the bank will challenge the legality of the general strike, BCR executive vice president Oana Petrescu declared adding that the management of the bank was open for negotiations.

The BCR trade union is formed by 40 independent groups organized at county level and, according to officials, some 6000 to 7000 people are members from a total of 8700.