Lisbon, Dec 11 (EFE).- The general strike called on Thursday by the main unions of Portugal to protest against the labor reform proposed by the government of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro (center-right) has brought much of the country to a standstill with the transport sector particularly affected, especially in Lisbon.
The capital’s metro has been closed since midnight, while the city bus service also severely affected even though Lisbon’s public transport management company Carris guaranteed some lines being operational.
Middle and long distance trains across the country also have not been running.
The airport in Lisbon has been almost empty, with cancelled flights, empty check-in counters and a significant reduction in passengers.
At Humberto Delgado International Airport, the Portuguese airline TAP expected to operate only a third of its flights. Air Europa has canceled on Thursday the 16 flights connecting Portugal.
«Today is a completely atypical day in terms of movement because the airlines have been careful to cancel flights in advance (because of the strike),» the head of the Union of Aircraft Maintenance Technicians in Portugal (SITEMA), Jorge Alves, told EFE.
More than 40 flights have been canceled between 11am and 8pm local time, with travel affected to national and international destinations such as Madrid, Nantes, Amsterdam, Washington, Newark, Paris and Casablanca, among others. Several more suffered from delays and delays.
Airlines have been, throughout the week, canceling flights and offering passengers to reschedule their trips, to prevent the airport from plunging into chaos on Thursday.
The health sector too has joined in the strike, with a participation of «more than 90 percent» of its professionals, according to the South Zone Doctors’ Union (SMZS) president Andre Gomes.
He stressed that the overwhelming participation of the country shows the government that the only way is to redraw the reforms by sitting at the table with the unions and negotiating most conditions.
«Only the minimum services are working,» said Gomes at the Santa Maria Hospital in Lisbon, adding the doctors would ensure «that urgent situations continue to be responded to.»
During this strike, minimum services have been decreed in the emergency department, palliative care, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine treatments, among others.
Moreover, a «significant part» of schools too remained closed on Thursday in support of the strike, according to the National Federation of Teachers (FENPROF).
«There is a significant adherence of teachers here in the metropolitan area of Lisbon, which is where there is the highest concentration of teachers and students,» FENPROF’s general secretary Jose Feliciano Costa told EFE, adding that according to preliminary data available, a large part of the country’s schools were closed.
«The teachers have clearly understood what is on the table, which is a proposal for the Labor Code that is very aggressive, of great setback in the rights of workers, with direct implications for teachers and their career,» he added.
The general secretary of the General Confederation of the Portuguese Workers – National Inter-union (CGTP-IN), Tiago Oliveira, told EFE that the general strike has so far seen a «great participation» in both the public and private sectors and was turning out to be a success.
He stressed that a strong response was needed to the government in its attempt to make changes to the labor legislation “that are profoundly negative.”
«We are talking about increasing precariousness,» he continued, «deregulation of working hours, facilitating dismissals, attacking the right to strike, this is what is on the table and to this attack there is an answer that is the struggle of the workers.»
This is the first general strike in Portugal in 12 years, since the time of the Portuguese Troika, when the trio of international lenders – the European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund – oversaw Portugal’s 78 billion euro bailout program from 2011 to 2014 during the European debt crisis, imposing strict austerity measures, fiscal reforms, and structural changes in exchange for financial assistance to stabilize its economy.
The main trade unions in the country have this general strike protest against the labor reforms proposed by the Montenegro government, which, according to workers’ representatives, facilitates dismissal, deregulates schedules and affects workers’ rights. EFE
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