The presidential candidate and president of Chega, André Ventura, considered today that, if the general strike of December 11th, called by the CGTP and the UGT, goes ahead, it is the “fault” of the “clumsy” way in which the Government handled the issue.
Speaking to journalists at the entrance to a meeting with the Commercial, Industrial and Services Association of Vila Nova de Gaia (ACIGAIA), Ventura said that the new labor law “should have been negotiated point by point, step by step, since the beginning of the summer” and that, “if we reach a strike now, it is bad for the country”.
“We are running a little after the loss. I think this, honestly, is negative. It is the Government’s fault, it is also the fault of some of these outdated unions, but this is the reality we have”, said André Ventura after arguing that the Montenegro executive should have negotiated with the labor sectors.
Blaming the Government, but also “the intransigence of unions, which often no longer represent anyone”, namely “leaders who haven’t worked for 20 or 30 years and are playing the political game of the extreme left that has seen itself diminished in parliament”, Ventura said that “the country needs a new labor law with flexibility, adapted to the modern economy”, but stressed that “those who work must also have their rights guaranteed”.
“I am referring to issues that are now generating some revolt on the part of the labor sectors and that could have been negotiated (…). This was not done in time and the Government has now implemented this in a haphazard way. We have been saying since July that dialogue was necessary”, said the candidate.
The leader of Chega listed, among other issues, the time bank, teleworking, the right to strike and compensation arising from the right to strike, as well as those related to the right to breastfeeding, to give examples of “poorly negotiated” aspects.
“The issue of breastfeeding and the right to breastfeeding, in a country that has the birth rate problems that we have and that are known to everyone, this was an issue that could have been dealt with. The Government chose not to do so, chose not to deal with it, chose to let the issue go to the end. Well, we can have flexibility, without giving the country the idea that people can be fired in any way, at any time and on a whim”, he said.
For Ventura, if Portugal reaches a general strike “it is bad for the country, bad for companies and bad for workers”.
“It’s bad for everyone. The country stops and that’s a negative sign. We’re comfortable because we’ve been on the side of common sense from the beginning. This is not a question of left and right. Whether you like it or not, a general strike is bad for the country, for the economy, for the country, it has significant damage to our public coffers. This should have been avoided before getting here”, he concluded.
The general strike was announced a week ago by the general secretary of the CGTP, Tiago Oliveira, at the end of the national march against the labor package, which led thousands of workers to descend Avenida da Liberdade, in Lisbon, in protest against the changes proposed by the Government of Luís Montenegro.
After the strike was announced, protesters showed support for the 24-hour strike by chanting “the attack is brutal, let’s go on a general strike.”
On Thursday, the UGT unanimously approved the decision to move forward in convergence with the CGTP.
This will be the first strike to bring together the two unions since June 2013, when Portugal was under intervention by the ‘troika’.