“Young people are leaving their parents’ house later and later due to low wages and precariousness”
Around 1,000 young workers took part in a demonstration organised by Interjovem in Lisbon on Tuesday, asking for salary increases and contesting precariousness and the rise in the cost of living.
The young workers from various sectors of activity left Rossio around 3.30pm towards the parliament building, carrying a banner with the slogans “enough of working and being poor” and “the precariousness must end“.
To the rhythm of the popular chant “Malhão, Malhão” – and the respective clapping -, under the eyes of tourists passing by Rua do Carmo, the demonstrators chanted “boss, boss, boss, capitalist, boss, boss, boss, you swindler, we’re working, profits increasing, no pay in sight”.
Besides the banner, the youths held up placards reading “peace, bread and the right to housing” and “some months are too much for my salary”.
In the demonstration, which took place on National and World Youth Day, there were, according to Interjovem, “close to 1,000” people.
Dinis Lourenço, the Interjovem coordinator, told Lusa that “urgent decisions are needed to change the course” of the “degradation of living conditions of young people” who are leaving their parents’ house later and later due to low wages and precariousness.
Among the demonstrators, Rita Branco, (26), a nurse, said that nurses currently work overtime and have “double and triple jobs” to make ends meet, that there was a need for “stability” in employment and that the state should be the first to set an example.
Vinicius, (24) with a fixed-term contract in the banking sector for two years, said that he receives the national minimum wage “which does not provide the minimum”, and because of this, he still lives at home with his parents because he cannot pay rent or buy a house.
At Calçada do Combro, speaking to journalists, the Communist Party general secretary Paulo Raimundo said that the demonstration shows that young workers “are taking the destinies of their lives into their hands”, demanding better wages and stability.
“In this fight against low wages, against precariousness, against the deregulation of schedules, it is a great joy to see these young people, with this capacity and this determination,” he said.
Raimundo told Lusa that demonstrations such as this one are forcing the government to take measures such as the VAT exemption on a basket of foodstuffs, even though they are still “very limited and very insufficient”.
CGTP secretary-general Isabel Camarinha took part in another Interjovem event on the same theme, which took place in Vila Nova de Gaia at the same time.
Source: Lusa
