PORTUGAL: Workers begin 24-hour general strike in protest against government austerity measures

Record ID: 339452

  • Title: PORTUGAL: Workers begin 24-hour general strike in protest against government austerity measures
  • Date: 24th November 2010
  • Summary: LISBON, PORTUGAL (NOVEMBER 23, 2010) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF ARRIVALS AREA AT LISBON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT/ STRIKING WORKERS IN ORANGE VESTS GATHERING OUTSIDE VARIOUS OF WORKERS CHANTING/ BANNERS POLICE WATCHING (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) FRANCISCO RAPOSO, WORKS IN LISBON MUNICIPALITY, SAYING "At this point almost all the workers are having major financial problems. All th
  • Embargoed: 9th December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Portugal, Portugal
  • Country: Portugal
  • Topics: Employment,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC1049M8XD1ZBZH55TNIH8D6QA
  • Story Text: Portuguese workers began their general strike on Tuesday (November 23) night with night-shift workers not reporting for work.
    At Lisbon's international airport, flights arriving and departing from 2000 GMT have been cancelled. Outside, workers mainly from the capital gathered to begin the action which will last until Wednesday (November 24) evening.
    The general strike, called by both of the country's main umbrella unions, is a response to a raft of austerity measures which plan to cut wages for civil servants by 5 percent and freeze pensions. These are all part of the government's 2011 budget plan.
    "At this point almost all the workers are having major financial problems. All the unemployed and pensioners are getting poorer and poorer and the richer are getting richer and richer," said 51-year old Francisco Raposo who works as an environmental adviser at Lisbon's municipal office. He says his salary of 700 eruos a month is barely enough to makemeet for his wife and 2 children.
    The Portuguese strike, for which no major rallies have been scheduled, will be the first in more than two decades to involve both the country's main umbrella unions, including the UGT group that is normally close to the Socialists.
    "We need to enforce a number of measures for the protection, security measures for the people who are not properly protected. There are cuts in the social welfare and unemployment benefits, drastic reduction in salaries of government employees and they have to be corrected and we need to change our political and economic policies," said labour union leader Manuel Carvalho da Silva.
    Many economists see Portugal as the next likely peripheral euro zone country to need a bailout, after Greece and Ireland, to resolve concerns over its debt burden.
    The Portuguese strike will happen just two days before the final vote in parliament on the budget bill, which is expected to pass after the main opposition party, the centre-right Social Democrats, vowed to allow its passage Although the public is sympathetic with those calling for the strike, some people say the austerity measures are a necessary evil, and a strike can do more harm than good.
    An approved budget is seen as crucial to soothing investor concerns about Portugal's public finances after borrowing costs spiked this year, raising the spectre of a bailout that could impose further, painful belt-tightening.
    The labour action, in which organisers plan to halt public transport, most health services and schools, leaves open the question of whether the private sector will walk out en masse to affect other services like banking as well as industry.
    Despite the strike, the government says it expects minimum services in all key areas to be maintained on Wednesday.
    END
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