2023-10-27 19:08:37
Waste collection, the operation of hospitals and schools were disrupted this Friday morning in Portugal due to a 24-hour strike by civil servants, to demand wage increases. The movement began Thursday evening, and according to the unions, 90% of night shifts walked off the job, except in hospitals where a minimum service was provided.
Around twenty schools are closed in the municipality of Porto, in Coimbra, garbage collection services are almost at a standstill, many schools have not welcomed students, and 30% of public transport drivers do not did not come to work this Friday morning, according to Portuguese newspapers.
“We anticipate a strong participation with disruptions or even the closure of different public services,” the coordinator of the Common Front of Public Administration Unions, Sebastiao Santana, told local media. The strikers are protesting in particular “against the policy of impoverishment carried out” by the socialist government with “the connivance” of right-wing parties, the union specifies in a press release. They are demanding salary increases to cope with “the sudden rise in the cost of living” and the loss of purchasing power.
Nurses launch overtime strike
The government, which presented the 2024 budget at the beginning of the month, has planned increases of between 3 and 6.8% for the civil service, in addition to the anti-inflation measures taken in the spring for low salaries. “This proposal does not satisfy any worker,” said Santana, who is demanding, on behalf of his members, increases of at least 15%, with a minimum of 150 euros per person.
Furthermore, Sindepor, the democratic union of nurses in Portugal, announced this Friday to launch, from November 3 and until December 31, an overtime strike in November and December, to demand the immediate opening of negotiations on career inequalities within the profession. All public hospitals will be affected.
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