The workers of Conradh na Gaeilge are Rails, drivers and brakemen, are going on a 24-hour strike this Thursday, July 11, in protest against the administration’s lack of response to demands for a real wage increase and progress towards a 35-hour work week. Network workers started the strike from dawn until 10pm on Wednesday, and it started at 3am for the remaining traffic workers.
According to the Road and Urban Transport Workers Union of Portugal (STRUP), which is part of the Transport and Communication Trade Union Confederation (FECTRANS), fixed sectors are on strike between midnight and 11:59 pm this Thursday. The union emphasizes that all workers who start their working period before midnight on Thursday, or whose longest working period coincides with that date, are covered by a strike notice.
“They go on strike at the beginning of their working day and until the end. Workers who finish their working day after midnight on that day are also covered”, explains STRUP, in a statement.
It is stated in the structure of the unions that the Court of Arbitration determined minimum services for the strike, considering, as necessary, in particular the operation of exclusive transport for disabled people, the emergency room and the medical post. According to STRUP, the Court of Arbitration did not accept the proposal of the company, which asked for “maximum services”, for the circulation of the buses.
In the last plenary session, on June 19, the workers considered it “unacceptable for the Carris Board of Directors (CA) to continue without responding to the ongoing demands”, despite the company’s “net profit of 9.5 million euros” the company accepted him. in the 2023 financial report. Among the demands, the workers demand a 100 euro increase in the salary scale, an increase in the value of the food allowance, an increase to 35 hours a week, and travel time to and from. the surrendered sites, and move on to the Lisbon Urban Area.
According to STRUP, these demands are “necessary not only to improve the living conditions of the workers, but also to create the conditions to retain the workers necessary for the public service provided by the company and to create attractive conditions for new entries”.
STRUP asks workers to meet at Pontinha station, at 10:30 am, to decide “how to continue the fight”, in case the company’s Board of Directors “does not show up at the meeting scheduled for July 23, until 3 pm , with a view to meeting the central demands of this struggle process.”
In the last plenary session, STRUP was given a mandate to continue the struggle process with a strike in the first two hours and the last two hours of daily working hours, in the week of 15 to 19 July.