MEven with the intervention of the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, in the negotiation process, the Government was unable to dissuade the UGT from moving towards a joint general strike with the CGTP in opposition to the reform of the Labor Code that Minister Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho has been negotiating since July in the Permanent Commission for Social Concertation (CPCS). Far from an agreement, with the UGT stating that it was the Government that pushed the union center to the wall and the minister classifying the general strike as “particularly serious” and “untimely”, the workers will actually stop on December 11th. It will be the fifth joint general strike in the history of democracy and a high turnout is expected. The Executive rules out, for now, a civil request scenario. But the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security warns that minimum services must be fulfilled.