LISBON.- The General Association of Portuguese Workers (CGTP) called for this Thursday a March against labor reform presented by the conservative government of Luis Montenegro. Under the name “Werk XXI”, the proposal focuses on Improving the competitiveness of the labor market and increasing productivity and bears similarities to the document transmitted by the President Javier Milei to the Argentine Congress.
According to the unions More than three million people took part in the massive strike. Tiago Oliveira, secretary of the organization, assured at Lisbon airport that the day was a “clear sign of the demand for better salaries and more rights” as well as a “success” and “a real response of workers to the government’s aggression towards the workers’ sector.”
The Secretary General of the CGTP claimed that the participation of workers at several airports in the mobilization had reached 90%, “historic” figures also seen in the private sector. “Look at Lisbon, it’s a completely deserted city,” he said.
It’s about the first general strike in 12 yearsafter the call of both workers’ organizations in 2013, when the country was intervened by the European “troika” in the midst of a financial rescue marked by harsh austerity measures and strong popular resistance.
At the beginning of November, thousands of people took to the streets in Lisbon to demonstrate against Montenegro’s proposed labor reform, seeing it as a setback for workers’ rights in the face of changes that include increasing the sectors subject to minimum benefits in the event of a strike or buying vacation days in exchange for a pay cut.
In the same march, the CGTP called for a massive mobilization on December 11th. “A general strike against the labor package and a policy at the service of capital, for a different direction for the country, where work and workers are at the heart of a policy of development and progress, for the defense and strengthening of public services and the social functions of the State,” he declared.
Montenegro’s proposal aims to ensure that the labor market has better competitive conditions in the market and increases productivity levels. “We are opening this in Portugal Possibility of even more favorable labor legislation for work, the quality of employment and the competitiveness of the economy“, explained Montenegro.
The reform includes 100 measures and, among the most important, includes the flexibility of collective bargaining, the abolition of leave for mothers who suffer spontaneous abortions, subcontracting after mass layoffs, the purchase of vacation days or the expansion of the sectors with minimum benefits.
The Portuguese government claims that the planned reforms are targeted make the labor market even more flexible. “The strike is political and motivates those who have never reached an agreement and do not want an agreement,” Montenegro protested in the National Assembly this week.
But unions called the reform a “concerted attack on a variety of rights” that would represent a “major setback” for workers. “It is an unconditional response to the demands of capital, something that business people welcome,” he warned.
With information from Europa Press
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