Widespread disruption hit Portuguese air and rail transport, hospitals and schools on Thursday, as unions called for the biggest national strike in more than a decade against the government’s labor reforms. Lisbon’s main train station was empty, with most services canceled, and national airline TAP canceled around two-thirds of its usual 250 flights, including at least six flights linking the Portuguese capital with Brazilian cities like São Paulo, Campinas and Fortaleza.
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According to the unions, garbage collection was at a standstill, as were the hospital sectors which treat non-urgent cases. Schools and courts have also been affected.
Unions have been angered by a law proposed by the right-wing minority government which they say aims to simplify dismissal procedures, extend the duration of fixed-term contracts and expand the minimum services required in the event of a strike.
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro insisted that the labor reforms, with more than 100 measures, aimed to “stimulate economic growth and pay better wages.”
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But the country’s largest union centers, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), and the more moderate General Union of Workers (UGT), have harshly criticized this project. And the strike is Portugal’s biggest since June 2013, when the country needed help from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union to overcome a debt crisis.
CGTP general secretary Tiago Oliveira said the reforms constituted “one of the biggest attacks on the world of work.” He told AFP that the government’s action would “normalize job insecurity” and “facilitate layoffs.”
Out of a working population of around five million people, around 1.3 million are already in precarious positions, Oliveira said.
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With Portugal set to elect a new president in early 2026, Oliveira said he considered the strike “a success” before it even began because it had focused public attention on labor reforms.
Public opinion is largely in favor of the action, with 61% of respondents in favor of the strike, according to a poll published in the Portuguese press.
On the eve of the strike, Montenegro said it hoped “the country would function as normally as possible… because the rights of one should not infringe on the rights of others.”
Although its right-wing party does not have a majority in Parliament, the Montenegrin government should be able to pass the bill with the support of the liberals – and the far right, which has become Portugal’s second political force.
The left-wing opposition accused the Montenegrin camp of failing to tell voters that rollbacks in labor rights were on the agenda during the campaign for the last parliamentary elections.
Although Portugal recorded economic growth of around 2 percent and a historically low unemployment rate of around 6 percent, the prime minister said the country should take advantage of the favorable climate to implement reforms.
Armindo Monteiro, president of the main employers’ confederation, the CIP, condemned the strike and told AFP that the government’s bill was only a “basis for discussion”, aimed at correcting the “imbalance” caused by social changes made by a previous left-wing government.
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