Another moment when strikes threaten to frustrate citizens’ everyday
In the fug of a stultifying heatwave, there is a new obstacle on the way: the National Day of Struggle, scheduled for Wednesday June 28.
This is the day picked by CGTP-IN (the confederation of Portuguese trade unions) for various sectors across the country, Algarve included, to strike, and apparently demonstrate.
In a statement sent to newsrooms, the federation says: “The government’s political choices have been used by employers to impoverish those who work, while they accumulate more and more profits and benefit from tax breaks.
“Workers and pensioners cannot put up with the living and working conditions that are being imposed and are demanding the right to a better life!
“June 28, National Day of Struggle, represents the struggle of workers for wage increases, the struggle of retired people and pensioners for increased pensions, the demand for guaranteed rights, against the rising cost of living and for the right to health and housing.
“On this day, various sectors in the country, but also in the Algarve region, will be on strike, there will be demonstrations outside companies and workplaces and workers’ plenaries on their just demands.
“We need an alternative policy that distributes wealth fairly, that respects and values work and workers, that promotes an increase in national production, that defends and invests in public services and the social functions of the State.
“Large employers and the government must respond to workers’ demands and the concerns of the people, starting with the reinstatement of the right to collective bargaining; with the reduction of the working week to 35 hours (…) with strategies to eradicate precariousness in the public and private sectors and with the urgent strengthening of investment in public services, namely in the national health service, public schools and access to housing, all of them priority areas enshrined in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.
“June 28, National Day of Struggle, is another day of confidence, determination and struggle for a better and more dignified life, to fight inequalities and injustices, demanding a change of course in our country”, the federation concludes.
