The Prime Minister considered today that the general strike called by CGTP and UGT “is incomprehensible”, saying that it only serves to “look at the interests” of the PCP and the PS, which “does not look good” on the union movement.
Speaking to journalists, in the final stretch of the 4th EU-CELAC Summit that took place today in Santa Marta (Colombia), Luís Montenegro was asked about the announcement by the CGTP, on Saturday, and today by the UGT, that they will move forward on December 11th to a joint general strike, which has as its central motivation the labor package that is being discussed in social consultation.
“Frankly, I can’t see any other reason for this position taken by the trade unions other than looking at interests that, from my point of view, should not be the prevailing ones, which is the interest of the parties that are, above all, linked to the management of the two trade unions”, he stated.
Montenegro said he really wanted to specify who he was talking about: “I’m talking about the Communist Party, which wants to show its existence through its trade union network in the CGTP, and I’m talking about the Socialist Party, which will also want to show its opposition political existence, taking advantage of some preponderance it has in the UGT”, he accused.
The Prime Minister reiterated that he considers the strike to be “untimely and even anachronistic”, since there is still no diploma approved by the Council of Ministers.
Montenegro open to dialogue with all parties
“Nobody can understand it and, in my opinion, it doesn’t look good on the trade union movement. I think the trade unions have everything they need to fulfill their task and their role – I don’t want to condition them, I think it’s great that they represent the labor interests of Portuguese workers -, but when the reality of the country is not the reality of the trade unions, something is wrong and it’s not the country”, he defended.
Asked about Chega’s challenge to back down on some matters in the labor package, Montenegro expressed openness to, when the diploma reaches Parliament, speak to all parties, especially because PSD and CDS-PP do not have a majority to approve it alone.
Montenegro also defended that “the Government has done everything to avoid all strikes” and reiterated that, in his point of view, “there is no objective matter that could lead to a general strike”.
The Prime Minister said that this Government has already made “19 labor or labor impact and remuneration and career agreements” and highlighted that, in 2024, Portugal was among the 38 OECD countries “the one where people’s incomes rose the most”.
“We are negotiating”
Asked if the Government is willing to negotiate in order to try to avoid this strike, Montenegro replied that the executive “is where it has always been, available to dialogue”.
“If you tell me that the main theme, not to say the only one, is the impetus that you want to give to a labor law that you want to be more friendly to employment and good employment and at a time when this proposal is being discussed in social consultation, it is on the table, your question is, are we available to negotiate”, he asked.
And he replied: “We are negotiating, we are in the middle of negotiating, there is still no approval within the Council of Ministers, there has not yet been a proposal sent to the Assembly of the Republic”, he stressed.
Montenegro assured that the Government “will neither accelerate nor slow down” negotiations with social partners and that, after the law is approved by the Council of Ministers, it will be sent to parliament.
“And I told all the political parties that I was available so that when this concertation work was completed and there was a bill approved in final terms by the Council of Ministers, we would open its discussion and also its inter-party negotiation in the parliamentary space. That’s what we’re going to do,” he said.