The Public Transport Association and representatives from the Roads and Urban Development Ministry did not manage to reach an agreement during an informal meeting to resolve the bus dispute. Thus, the strike will continue on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the general strike being followed by all bus owners entered its second day, with the suspension of school transport service.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry said that it filed a judicial protest against the ATP President and Secretary for not providing school transport service. The Ministry explained that the Association breached the agreement reached between the Education Division and the ATP that was signed in October last year. It added that since the Association did not provide the service, it has to pay LM6,900 for every school day until the strike comes to an end.
On Wednesday, the government schools opened as usual and the government had encouraged parents to find other means of transport to take their children to school. In fact, many parents took their children to school and this has led to chaos and traffic jams in many localities on Wednesday morning. It was reported that many students did not attend school, however, the majority attended since many schools make use of minibus and coach services that operated as usual.
The industrial action started on Tuesday after the Public Transport Association ordered a general strike over a dispute regarding the public transport reform and the government’s subsidy for 2005.
Meanwhile, the Authority will continue to provide the emergency bus routes towards St Luke’s Hospital. Moreover, in addition to the eight routes, there are now four more routes towards Junior College and University.
In the meantime, commenting on the bus strike Alternattiva Demokratika Chairperson Dr Harry Vassallo stated, “The sector is in crisis quite apart from the present strike over payments; official figures show that public transport usage has declined by 20% in 8 years whilst dependence on private transport has continued to increase at alarming rates. The government is morally bound to reverse these trends since not doing so, will have profound social, economic and environmental implications."
On his part, AD Spokesperson on Public Transport Mark Scerri said that the reasons for this decline are known to everyone: most of the buses (80%) are more than 20 years old and their engines are inefficient (meaning that they waste a lot of fuel), in some cases the road safety of the vehicle is also questionable. He added that the service should be contracted over a definite period of time to whoever (cooperative, private or public company) can guarantee a service which is up to standard.
See also:
Buses on strike, government won't budgere
By MaltaMedia News - Feb 28, 2006, 10:32 CET
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