HAULIERS with the Slovak Union of Motor Carriers (UNAS) will for now refrain from blocking roads around the country. The organisation has halted the general strike it announced on March 4, due to what it called fair promises made by the Transport Ministry and a set of guaranteed solutions.
UNAS will, however, remain on strike alert, the TASR newswire reported on March 9.
“The strike alert will last until the demands are fulfilled,” UNAS deputy chairman Róbert Huran said, as quoted by TASR, after a meeting in Nová Dedina, in the Levice district.
UNAS objects to several toll system changes that were enacted in January. They require, for example, the elimination of toll fees on roads in urban areas as of March 15, as well as on lower-class roads and uncharged first-class roads. They also want fines to equal the European average, and they are calling for a decrease in the excise tax on diesel fuel. Representatives of the hauliers’ associations and the Transport Ministry have already agreed on the changes at meetings held in February and March.
Huran stressed that they will launch a general strike if the government fails to implement the measures as it has promised. The number of hauliers on strike should be higher than in 2010, when UNAS blocked several roads across the country in their protest against the electronic toll system, TASR wrote. The strike resulted in a decrease in the excise tax on diesel fuel.
