The Minister of Labor considered this Monday that the announcement of the general strike by the UGT “is untimely” given that the draft labor review is being discussed. In an interview with RTP Notícias, Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho highlighted that “the strike is not scheduled”, just “announced” and recalled that there is a meeting scheduled for this Thursday.
“From the UGT’s point of view, this strike has been announced (…) Apparently it will be decided at Thursday’s meeting at the secretariat and then whether or not it will take place.”
“We are actually sitting at the table negotiating”, said the minister, confirming the existence of a calendar of meetings on the reform of the labor package.
“There are bilateral meetings and we have a plenary meeting [Comissão Permanente de Concertação Social] on December 10th, so that we can let the budget period pass, as agreed with the PS”.
The minister criticized the CGTP, which “reacted half an hour later to the proposals, without even having time to read them”. The union structure, highlighted Palma Ramalho, “said from the first moment that it did not want to negotiate”.
“There was a somewhat epidermal reaction when we launched the reform, because labor matters are always matters of great passion and, therefore, there is an almost instantaneous reaction and therefore without the necessary consideration, even without knowledge of the rules”.
The minister rejected accusations that the dialogue in the context of Social Concertation is “a façade”, stressing that “all the standards” set out in the draft labor review presented by the Government “are standards under construction, under improvement, and are being constructed and perfected with all social partners”. He warned, however, that the “Government is not available to withdraw the entire proposal”.
Rebelo de Sousa and Montenegro react to the strike
The President of the Republic Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who found the decision to strike “hasty”, did not want to comment on the matter today, beyond guaranteeing that “there is a way to do it, all parties involved have said so”.
According to Tiago Oliveira, general secretary of CGTP-IN, on the table is “the demand to withdraw the labor package”.
“What is at stake is the normalization of precariousness, the extension of working hours, the attack on collective contracting, the facilitation of dismissals, the prevention of unions from entering workplaces”, criticized the union leader.
Luís Montenegro considered this Sunday that the strike “is incomprehensible” and that the general strike serves to “look at the interests” of the PCP and the PS, which “does not look good” on the union movement.
The Portuguese Tourism Confederation (CTP) criticized the general strike by the two unions, understanding that it is “untimely and disproportionate”, as the draft is still under discussion.
“Striking is a constitutionally enshrined right, but it must be exercised with responsibility and proportionality and only when the avenues of dialogue have been exhausted. At this moment, the negotiation process is ongoing and it is not reasonable to paralyze the country without even knowing the result of the negotiations”, said the president of the CTP, Francisco Calheiros, in a statement.