Yerevan City Hall fires 18 bus drivers involved in the strike

YEREVAN, December 3. /ARKA/. As a result of the strike by public transport drivers on Tuesday, 18 of them have been dismissed so far, Yerevan Mayor's press secretary Hayk Kostanyan wrote on Facebook.

Due to the lack of buses in the morning, tens of thousands of Yerevan residents were unable to get to work, school, or other appointments. Bus drivers have stated that they are dissatisfied with their working conditions and wages. The mayor's office has accused them of protesting the reduction in “shadow” earnings (related to fare collection) and attempting to engage in blackmail.

Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan reacted strongly to the drivers' strike. “I make it clear that we will not yield to any blackmail, nor will we make any compromises. The organizers of the strike will be held fully accountable,” Avinyan wrote on Facebook.

About the drivers' protest

Drivers dissatisfied with the city administration's policies staged a protest. One of the participants stated that the city authorities' plans to raise public transport fares had failed, leading only to increased corruption, and the situation with public transport in Yerevan could be described as dire.

"Our nerves are on edge; we transport people and are responsible for their well-being. We are instructed (by the mayor's office - ed.) not to allow passengers to board the bus if they do not have a 100-dram coin or a QR code, or, for example, if the validator on the bus is not working or freezes," he noted.

According to him, the city authorities kept their promise to review salaries. “We were promised a salary increase—specifically, Avinyan mentioned this when we would switch to the card system. He said our salary would increase by 150,000 drams. We agreed, but a month has passed and nothing has changed,” said a participant in the protest.