The Common Front of Public Administration Unions considered the expectations regarding the national strike this Friday fulfilled, affecting the overwhelming majority of public services and closings from north to south of the country.
The balance is that the expectations we had for today’s national strike day were met. We had closed services from the north to the south of the country, we had a great impact on the vast majority of services”, said the coordinator of the Common Front, Sebastião Santana, in statements to Lusa.
“Today it will be difficult to find a public administration service that has functioned normally, which is revealing of what the adherence of the workers to this strike was.“, added the leader of the union structure that called for the national strike.
According to Sebastião Santana, the strike affected health services, education, finance, social security, local authorities “with swimming pools, libraries and shipyards closed” and also caused “serious disturbances” in the justice system.
For the leader of the Common Front, “The signal given today by the public administration workers to the Government is clear and unequivocal: workers demand a different policy, that values their career and their salary, that defends public services and does not continue down this path of impoverishment and degradation of public services”.
Asked if new forms of struggle are being prepared, the trade unionist said that “the future is already tomorrow”, indicating that “many thousands of public administration workers” will be at the national demonstration of the CGTP, in Lisbon, on Saturday.
After the 18th, it is up to the Government to guarantee social peace or the lack thereof”, warned Sebastião Santana.
Throughout the day of this Friday, the unions were reporting on the levels of adherence to unemployment throughout the country.
According to data from the unions, several hospitals only operated with minimal services in terms of admissions and emergencies, without external consultations, and some surgeries were postponed. Some schools and citizen businesses closed due to the strike.
The national strike of officials, which began at 12:00 a.m. this Friday, began at the start of the night shift of workers in the areas of health and urban solid waste collection (domestic waste), who were thus the first to go on strike.
Among the reasons for the strike called by the Common Front are the demand for immediate salary increases, the establishment of maximum limits for the prices of goods and services, the valuation of careers and the reinforcement of public services.
A national demonstration is scheduled for Saturday in Lisbon, promoted by the CGTP, for the general increase in wages and pensions due to the rise in the cost of living.
Source: Observadora
