PORTUGAL: Trains, planes cancelled as Portuguese workers stage general strike

Record ID: 340569

  • Title: PORTUGAL: Trains, planes cancelled as Portuguese workers stage general strike
  • Date: 25th November 2011
  • Summary: DIARIO DE NOTICIAS FRONT PAGE HEADLINE READING "PASSOS CONVENES MINISTERS AT 8.30 TO DIMINISH IMPACT OF PROTEST" PUBLICO NEWSPAPER HEADLINE SHOWING IMAGE OF STRIKE
  • Embargoed: 10th December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Portugal, Portugal
  • Country: Portugal
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABUICGEV5KJDK0RTI56KL3XPRI
  • Story Text: Trains and flights cancelled throughout Portugal as workers stage general strike against austerity. A general strike by Portuguese workers against austerity spelt a day of havoc for travellers on Thursday (November 24) as stoppages led to widespread cancellations of flights and trains.
    The centre-right government is trying to implement steep cuts to its deficit to meet budget goals imposed by the European Union that will allow it to use a 78-billion-euro ($100 billion) bailout to rescue it from its worst economic crisis in decades.
    Transport and other public services were disrupted across the nation of 11 million as workers showed their opposition to job losses and spending cuts.
    Trains of Portugal, CP, said it expected to operate less than 20 per cent of the normal national service throughout Thursday.
    "I need to get to work, and since there are no trains I need people to come here and take me to work. But personally, it affects me as it is approaching 7.30 and I won't be there (at work) on time. I don't know how I will arrive," said stranded commuter, Carlos Jorge, at one of Lisbon's main train stations.
    The Portuguese airport authority ANA said that strike action by ground, cabin, and air control staff would disrupt flights until 0000GMT on Thursday. Lisbon's airport was largely vacant of travellers early on Thursday with screens displaying dozens of cancelled flights across Europe and the world.
    One stranded passenger, who had wanted to fly to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, said she would miss important work commitments due to the strike action.
    "My relatives will be waiting for me at the airport, I was very anxious to get home, and right now I have to postpone it. And I also have a seminar that I was going to attend, and I cannot attend it anymore. So, that was actually not good at all," said Alini Deakianu.
    Portugal was the third country in the euro zone to seek a bailout, after Greece and Ireland, and is now headed for its deepest recession since it returned to democracy in 1974. The economy is set to contract nearly 3 percent next year.
    For weeks, posters have lined the streets of Lisbon urging workers to strike, while the government insists there is no way out of painful austerity, which includes deeply unpopular measures such as cutting civil servants' holiday and bonuses.
    Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, who came to power in June after the socialist government collapsed over the cuts, said the country's priority was to beat the debt crisis.
    Analysts say the Portuguese, unlike other nations such as Greece, do not have a tradition of violent protest, and labour action in the face of the crisis has so far been low-key.
    But the prospect of harsh belt-tightening measures, which kick in with full force next year, may foster support and make Thursday's strike significantly larger than one held a year ago.
    In its drive to cut debt, the government's reforms include spending cuts in everything from health services to public television. It is also reforming labour laws and has extended the working day by half an hour.
    Under its bailout from the European Union and IMF, Portugal must cut its budget deficit this year to 5.9 percent of gross domestic product from nearly 10 percent in 2010. In 2012, Lisbon has promised to cut the deficit to 4.5 percent of GDP.
    Workers' fears, especially in state companies that face heavy cuts, have been fed by unemployment, which stands at 12.4 percent and is the highest since the 1980s.
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