Nurses “must be prepared for long battle with absolute majority government”
Portuguese Nurses’ Union SEP has announced two more strike dates on June 28 and 30 to demand better working conditions, the hiring of more professionals and the counting of points for career progression purposes.
In a video message posted over social media yesterday, SEP president José Carlos Martins explained that in the absence of responses to union demands from the Ministry of Health, new strikes had been decided for the morning and afternoon shifts of both days.
“The Ministry of Health still hasn’t presented any solutions for the set of problems … and so following up on the national strike of May 12, the national leadership met and decided to go ahead with two days of strike,” he said.
Also, on June 30, the union plans to hold a rally in front of the Ministry of Health in Lisbon (starting at 11am), Martins added – stressing that nurses will continue to fight for guidelines regarding the counting of points for the purposes of career progression, to resolve relative injustices, fight for the payment of retroactive payments since 2018 and the restoration of salary parity between the nursing career and the career of senior technicians and others in the health sector.
In his message, Martins revealed SEP will be launching a cycle of debates “framing a profound proposal to the career” of nurses.
“Finally, I would like to make two more remarks: firstly it is vital, fundamental, to resolve the priority problems listed and lastly, to say that there are no results, there have never been, throughout history, processes of reaching solutions without struggle, without continued struggle, without persistent struggle: in a framework of a government with an absolute majority (as Portugal’s currently is), we know that the war will be long and will have several continued battles, persistent and organised,” he concluded.
Source material: LUSA
