Nurses call strike for November 3 and 4

Following on from the announcement of a strike by doctors at the end of November, Portugal’s nursing syndicates have announced they too will be doing the same – on November 3 and 4. Seven syndicates have signed up to the latest round of industrial action, citing ‘total absence of dialogue by the Ministry of Health’. Health minister Marta Temido has countered that the government is ‘always available to dialogue’ but that it can’t cope with every demand coming from the sector at once. This latest unrest comes when the ‘success’ of the government’s proposed budget for 2022 appears to be hanging by a few frazzled bits of thread. Pundits however suggest much of the fuss is ‘theatre’ and that one way or other the State Budget will scrape through parliament in order to head off (deeper) political crisis.