Protesting truckers planned to return to one of Bratislava's busiest traffic arteries - Rožňavská Street - on Monday, February 1, Jaroslav Polaček from the Union of Slovak Road Carriers (UNAS) told a briefing on Sunday, January 31, as reported by the SITA newswire.
“Rožňavská Street is where the protest of the truckers started (with a blockade). We’re returning there determined to continue, because the promises [given to the truckers by the government] haven't been fulfilled,” Polaček said.
UNAS has declared a country-wide strike, asking the public for solidarity and support, SITA wrote.
“We won't restrict you, but we have to react to the unacceptable worsening of the conditions, which don't only touch us, but touch all Slovak people,” the representative said in addressing the public. Representatives of UNAS refused to provide more details concerning the strike.
“You'll see us, but we won't block or restrict drivers,” Polaček assured, adding that the strike will start at midnight Sunday and will be mainly concentrated in Bratislava and Košice.
Neither fines nor impoundment of driving licenses prevented truckers from blocking the roads leading into the towns of Zvolen and Lučenec on February 1. “We are just striking – and we have the constitutional right to do so. Police officers have taken our licenses and imposed fines of up to €60, but we refused to pay,” one of the truckers told the TASR newswire.
The UNAS truckers’ strike in Bratislava is supported by about twelve trucks from Bratislava, Senec and Dunajská Streda. They are parked on a lot between Trnavská cesta and the Pasienky stadium. “We will wait and see how the situation develops, and act according to it,” said the Bratislava regional co-ordinator of the strike to the SITA newswire, asking to have his surname withheld. SITA, TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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