A total of 2,802 union members participated in the vote, with 2,305 voting in favor of joining the strike, 320 opposing, and 177 abstaining.
The emergency assembly was called after the union accused the government of labeling its actions as a “reform” when it believes they amount to “the dismantling of labor guarantees,” in connection to the draft revision of the Labor Code.
In a statement issued last week, the SNPVAC argued that the executive “is not reforming the Labor Code; it is testing the country,” highlighting that the proposed changes have “enormous repercussions in the aviation sector.”
The union rejected statements from Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, who accused the union organizations CGTP and UGT and the unions of “political opportunism” for calling a joint general strike.
According to the union, such an accusation reveals “a profoundly unfair and disrespectful view of the role of the union movement,” while the government “attempts to turn unions into enemies of the economy.”
“There is no modernity when legislating against workers. And there is no social dialogue when the government responds to opposition with accusations of opportunism,” emphasized the union structure in the statement issued on November 19, considering the government’s draft labor revision “an unprecedented civilizational regression not even aligned with the economies this government references.”
The CGTP and UGT announced a general strike for December 11 against the government’s proposal. This will be the first joint strike since June 2013, during Portugal’s ‘troika’ intervention.
