Thousands train commuters stranded in Argentina by unexpected strike

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BUENOS AIRES, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of commuters in and around Argentina's capital Buenos Aires were stranded Thursday by an unexpected strike that stopped service along two central train lines, transit system sources said.

Train workers on the Mitre and Sarmiento lines, which link the capital to the northern and western suburbs, called a last-minute work stoppage that lasted from 4 a.m. (07:00 GMT) to 8:30 a.m. (11: 30 GMT), the peak rush hours, affecting thousands of commuters.

Union leader Jose Luis Moyano said the strike was due to the fact that the deadline for obligatory negotiation expired more than two months ago, after which "we followed all the legal term limits and we got no response."

The strike came a day after Florencio Randazzo, minister of the interior and transportation, announced new safety measures that will test levels of alcohol, through breathalyzers and blood samples, among train drivers, guards and other train personnel on all the lines.

The spokesman of the Mitre-Sarmiento Operation Management Unit (UGOMS), Pablo Gunning, noted the strike took place a day after the government released videos of train personnel reading books or sleeping on the job, and texting while driving the trains.

"It's not surprising that this (strike) takes place today, after what was released yesterday," said Gunning.

The train workers, meanwhile, said the strike was to demand better wages, but that assertion was refuted by Randazzo.

The transportation minister called the work stoppage "savage, irrational and incomprehensible," and added that "just days ago, the workers received a 23 percent wage increase, like all other workers. Their wages are 20,000 Argentine pesos (3,640 U.S. dollars) a month."

The strike took thousands of commuters by surprise, leaving them to improvise a way to get to work as traffic also became paralyzed.

Argentina's latest two fatal railway accidents occurred on the Sarmiento line, the last on June 13, when three people died and more than 300 were injured. In February 2012, 51 people were killed and more than 600 were injured at the Once Station.

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