Operating rail workers, including proofreaders and ticket workers, are on strike Sunday over wage increases. The union anticipates a strong impact.
“It will be a very strong blow, possibly there will be almost no convoys. We know it’s a holiday, but [a greve] Less harmful to users. Those of us who transport, we know that they are of the same social status as us and we try not to harm those who come to work”, said the leader of the Railway Union of the Itinerant Commercial Magazine (SFRCI), Luís Bravo, in statements to Lusa .
CP also warned of major disruptions due to the strike.
According to the trade unionist, it is at stake that the workers continue to have their salaries frozen for more than 10 years.
Luís Bravo regretted that the sector has not yet received the 0.9% update, approved for the civil service, which he described as “miserable”, representing between five and nine euros, depending on the level.
According to the union, for this, the CP Administration “imposes” the signing of a new company agreement, “with worse working conditions.”
The SFRCI leader lamented that the workers are “completely unprotected” in the face of rising inflation and energy costs.
“Transport workers, assigned to trains and ticket offices, who start their shift at five, six or seven in the morning and leave after midnight, have to travel in their own vehicles and, with the increase in fuel, in these moments, about 20% of his salary is already going to go to work”, he pointed out.
Added to this are shift work and rotating days off and a “brutal increase in the cost of living”, factors that have led even younger workers to leave the company.
On the other hand, the contests to incorporate new employees have become vacant, because “there is no one who applies with these salaries and in continuous work”, in that sense, as he pointed out, there are exhausted trains, which are being suppressed. due to the lack of workers, he lamented, defending that the CP administration and the guardianship seem to be “comfortable” with this situation.
“It is a day that we would like to impact and that there would be a reaction from the Government and the Administration of the CP, but possibly they were all on extended vacations,” he concluded.
A 24-hour strike is also planned for June 23 for operational railway workers, north of Pombal.
CP – Comboios de Portugal has already warned that the movement of the company’s trains should have “important interruptions on June 12, 13 and 16 due to the strike.
CP informs that customers who have already purchased a ticket to travel on the Alfa Pendular, Intercidades, Interregional and Regional trains will be able to refund the total value of the purchased ticket, or its revalidation, free of charge.
The company “regrets the inconvenience caused to its customers” and “recommends inquiring about the state of train traffic”, by contacting the company’s information channels, on the website or on the helpline.
Since the beginning of the month, there has been a strike by CP workers for overtime and vacations, which lasts until the end of the month, but has not provoked any repression, an official company source told Lusa on June 3.
On May 16, CP announced that it had reached an agreement with 12 unions to revise the Company Agreement, leaving three union structures out.
The agreement reached involved a salary increase of 0.9%, with retroactive effect to January 1, 2022, the homogenization of the meal allowance at 7.74 euros and the integration of former EMEF workers in the salary scale of CP retroactively to January 1.
Source: Observadora
