Bus drivers threaten strike
Ah, let ‘em strike. Bring in some immigrant professionals.
The AS GoBus company public transport bus drivers in Tartu and Pärnu have threatened to hold an hour-long warning strike Friday morning if they don’t reach a wage increase agreement. The Transport Trade Union chairman said that the union has tried to conclude a new collective labor agreement with GoBus since the beginning of this year but without results.
As long as negotiations are going to take place, City Paper suggests the state fight for these improvements in driver behavior:
- The bathrooms on all busses covering the Tallinn-Tartu route should be unlocked and travelers allowed to use them. No one should have to urinate in a bottle or ask the driver for a metsapeatus (forest stop).
- City bus drivers should announce stops clearly, never with a mouthful of peanuts or a disinterested or drunken slur.
- Bus drivers should learn to respond “hello” or something equivalently friendly when they are greeted by a passenger.
- Falck should not be allowed to ticket tourists for riding city busses without validated tickets, since absolutely no information of any kind is available in English, German, French, or any other international language.
- Busses should be kept clean inside and out. Just because it’s a rust-bucket made in Hungary doesn’t mean it should not be clean.