Zagreb Transit Strike Begins Monday at 3:30 AM
Talks between unions and the management of Zagreb Holding and ZET ended without a deal, so a strike starts Monday, September 28, at 3:30 a.m., leaving Zagreb without trams and buses.
A last attempt to head off a public transit strike in Zagreb fell apart today, after talks between the unions and the management of Zagreb Holding and the Zagreb Electric Tram (ZET) produced no agreement. Unless a new proposal arrives by Monday, every tram and bus in the Croatian capital stops at 3:30 a.m. on September 28, taking a chunk of the city’s communal services down with it.
Management at both companies say the unions raised their demands during today’s meeting compared with what they had asked for during mediation. According to the companies, the request for a base pay increase climbed from 12 to 13 percent, at the very moment the strike was supposed to be called off.
“Despite good faith, representatives of the unions put forward broader demands to the management of both companies than the ones raised during mediation, as a condition for calling off the strike,” Zagreb Holding and ZET management said in a joint statement.
They add that they could not accept an offer like that.
Vladimir Jozic, president of the Union of Drivers and Transport Workers, said 75 percent of the union’s membership voted for the strike, and that the mayor had further inflamed tensions by publishing employees’ pay slips.
“This could have been avoided if things had been handled better. The mayor put a target on our backs for spin purposes; you can even see an employee’s name on one of the pay slips. We will file all the legal actions once the mayor published the pay slips. That’s not fair, it’s not right, and I’m disappointed in how the mayor handled this. See everyone at 3:30 on Monday,” Jozic said.
Drazen Jovic, president of the Transport and Communal Services Union of Croatia, said there is a strong chance that not a single ZET vehicle will run on Monday. The unions said that if the strike goes ahead at the scale they have announced, residents will not see any of their vehicles on the streets.
Beyond public transit, the strike also hits part of Zagreb Holding’s communal operations. Regular household waste collection will be suspended, and road and green space maintenance is now in question as well. The unions said essential services, including waste collection from hospitals, kindergartens, health centers and nursing homes, along with funerals, will still be carried out.
Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic rejected accusations that the city is failing to invest in workers’ rights and pointed to base pay increases over the past two years, up 15.6 percent since May 2025 to 567.24 euros a month, and a further 4.4 percent since January 2026, to 592.20 euros.
“Cumulatively, over three years, operational workers’ pay at the Holding and at ZET has risen by up to 80 percent,” Tomasevic said, adding that the city will not pay for strike days.
He urged residents who do not have to travel to stay home, and those who must get to work to leave earlier and expect heavier traffic. He also called on employers to allow remote work and more flexible hours wherever possible.
Some issues, including how many workers will handle essential services during the strike, remained unresolved at the talks and have been referred to arbitration, since management and the unions could not agree on that proposal either.
