ŽPCG workers announce warning strike for tomorrow: Passenger traffic will be suspended for an hour

Workers of the Railway Transport of Montenegro (ŽPCG), led by the Unified Union of Workers of ŽPCG, will organize a warning strike lasting one hour tomorrow (September 2), during which passenger rail traffic in Montenegro will be suspended.

The strike will last from 9 to 10 am, the Unified Union of Workers of ŽPCG announced.

As they stated, the strike was organized due to the failure to adopt the employees' demands that were presented at the protest on August 3rd.

The Union said that after the protest, they had a meeting with members of the Board of Directors, who asked them to prepare calculations and submit them to the Minister of Transport, Radoš Zečević, for review.

"The agreement was that we would receive a response to our requests no later than August 17, 2026, however, we were then told that a response from the Ministry was still awaited and we have not received it to this day," the statement said.

That is why they decided to take radical measures, the Union says, and again sent requests to the executive director of ŽPCG, in accordance with the decision of the Union assembly held on August 21st.

The workers are demanding that their wages be temporarily increased by 200 euros, until the implementation of the new collective agreement, and that the collective agreement be signed and implemented as soon as possible.

The Union reminds that, as they claim, employees of ŽPCG have the lowest salaries in the railway sector.

They stated that ŽPCG workers receive the lowest salaries in the railway sector and that their average salary is 200 euros below the national average. They stated that the 200 euro assistance they were granted in February was reduced to 100 euros after a month, while the July salary was completely abolished, which, they say, caused great dissatisfaction among ŽPCG workers.

"We hereby apologize to all users of our services and citizens who use the train as a means of transportation and ask for understanding. Another difficult season is behind us, which the ŽPCG workers carried on their backs on an ever more difficult and demanding railway, with poor rolling stock. We have also achieved good income, also thanks to these same workers who are now being told that there is no money for them," the statement said.

The Union assesses that their demands are realistic and points out that with an average salary of 850 euros, while the consumer basket at the state level exceeds 2100 euros, it is impossible to survive and meet basic living needs.