CP, the national railway company, has announced potential major disruptions in train services due to strikes scheduled from May 7 to May 13. The company has stated on its website that, particularly on May 7, 8, and 9, train operations cannot be guaranteed as no minimum service levels have been mandated by the Arbitral Tribunal of the Economic and Social Council.
An official from CP noted that as of 7:00 PM on Thursday, no trains had circulated. The Arbitral Tribunal clarified on Thursday that minimum services were not decreed for the CP strikes because the company warned that operating at 15% capacity would not ensure passenger safety.
This clarification comes following multiple reports and controversies surrounding the strikes at CP, as explained by the Arbitral Tribunal of the Economic and Social Council in a statement. The Tribunal emphasized that the situation does not involve a single strike spanning May 7 to May 14 but comprises multiple strikes called by various unions, exercising the right to strike as delineated in Article 57 of the Constitution.
The Tribunal further highlighted that the lack of minimum service definitions is not contrary to case law and that there was no agreement between the company and unions regarding minimum services. In this regard, the Tribunal had requested CP to specify which train services, constituting 15% of the usual nationwide operations, would run, focusing on the urban lines of Lisbon and Porto during peak morning and evening hours over the three days. CP had consented to this request.
However, CP later indicated that maintaining 15% operation on the urban lines of Lisbon and Porto could not ensure passengers’ physical safety both at stations and aboard trains. Given this scenario, the Tribunal deemed it “inadvisable” to enforce 15% minimum services, considering the serious risk to passengers’ lives and safety, as CP indicated.
The strikes on Wednesday and Thursday were called by several unions, including the Associação Sindical das Chefias Intermédias de Exploração Ferroviária (ASCEF), Associação Sindical Independente dos Ferroviários da Carreira Comercial (ASSIFECO), Federação dos Sindicatos dos Transportes e Comunicações (FECTRANS), Sindicato Nacional dos Transportes Comunicações e Obras Públicas (FENTCOP), Sindicato Nacional dos Ferroviários do Movimento e Afins (SINAFE), Sindicato Nacional Democrático da Ferrovia (SINDEFER), and others.
Additional strikes were organized by the Sindicato dos Maquinistas (SMAQ) and Sindicato Ferroviário da Revisão Comercial Itinerante (SFRCI).
