Grivița strike of 1933

The strike was brought about by the increasingly poor working conditions of railway employees in the context of the worldwide Great Depression, which affected Romania significantly.

The following day, the workers of the train wagon workshop (who worked under the open sky) were dismissed until the weather improved.

Initially, the strike started at the wagon workshop, where it had the support of 700 workers who had just been temporarily dismissed, submitting the employer a list of demands.

[2] The Minister of Communications, Eduard Mirto, entered in the negotiation process between the workers and the Administration Council of the Romanian Railroads.

The minister approved all the economic demands of the workers: a minimum wage of 4000 lei and a re-introduction of the rent allowance.

On February 2, 1933, the communist union members spread manifests in the neighbourhoods, in which they announced that they believed that the government would not respect its promises and they asked for the recognition of "factory committees".

[1] As the workshops were surrounded by the gendarmes and the Army, the social-democratic unions announced that they do not support these new demands and they accused the communists of creating unrest in the workers' movement.

[3] Gheorghiu-Dej was sentenced to 12 years' forced labour by the courts of the Kingdom of Romania for his role in organising the Grivița strike.