“The government is not reforming the Labor Code; it is testing the country. It is testing how many hours can be extended, how many rights can be revoked, how many collective agreements can expire, and how many strikes can be emptied by minimum service decrees,” the union stated in a communication sent to members.
The SNPVAC has requested the president of the General Assembly to schedule an emergency meeting, with the date yet to be announced, arguing that “all these changes have enormous repercussions in the aviation sector.”
The union rejected the statements of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, who accused the trade union confederations CGTP and UGT and the unions of “political opportunism” for calling a joint general strike.
“The real opportunism is using political power to test the patience and dignity of an entire country while calling ‘reform’ the dismantling of labor guarantees,” it emphasized.
According to SNPVAC, Luís Montenegro’s words reveal “a deeply unjust and disrespectful view of the role of the trade union movement” and represent rhetoric “that tries to turn unions into enemies of the economy.”
“There is no modernity when legislating against those who work. And there is no social dialogue when the government responds to protests with accusations of opportunism,” the union structure highlighted, considering the government’s draft plan for labor revision “an unprecedented civilizational setback that is not even aligned with the economies that this government references.”
CGTP and UGT announced a general strike for December 11 against the government’s proposal, which will be the first joint stoppage since June 2013, during Portugal’s ‘troika’ intervention period.
