In an interview with RTP Madeira, Rosário Ramalho acknowledged the “economic” and “social” impacts of Thursday’s general strike, while stating that “official figures” on worker participation in the strike “do not correspond at all to the numbers put forward by the trade unions.”
“The Government is obviously not willing to go back to square one because this draft bill was legitimized by the electoral program, the government program, and even by the tripartite agreement signed last year with the Social Dialogue, including with the UGT [General Workers Union], which stipulated that we were to review labor legislation,” she stated.
The official emphasized that “a set of very significant changes” are at stake and therefore “starting from scratch is never technically possible.”
“Someone has to take the initiative. In this case, it was the Government, which presented it as a draft bill, and this is what’s being debated, but with full openness,” she added.
According to Rosário Ramalho, the draft bill is “a working basis and not a finished product,” since it “could have been a law proposal right away,” meaning it is a document to “build solutions, and solutions are found halfway.”
“We need to get both sides closer together, but it has to be from both ends. The Government has presented several proposals on the first draft bill. The UGT, so far, has not presented proposals but intends to study ours,” she described.
The government member, led by social democrat Luís Montenegro, asserted that the executive “never” broke off negotiations and that it was the UGT, “by deciding to call the general strike,” that “naturally” caused the suspension of meetings.
“We indeed have numbers – and those numbers are official – that in no way correspond to the numbers the unions announced. But they also announced [worker participation in the general strike], very early in the morning,” she explained.
According to the labor minister, the data “suggest a general strike that had very little effect in the private sector and more in the public sector.”
“But regardless of the numbers, a general strike always has a significant impact. Not only because the sectors that had more participation are those that cause more economic disruption – for example, if a school closes, there’s not just the school problem, but also the issue of parents needing to stay home with their children,” she declared.
Rosário Ramalho admitted that “the economic impact is greater than the number of participants because it’s a general strike” and that “on the other hand, there’s also a social impact,” reiterating that “the Government always considered this general strike inopportune because negotiations are ongoing, but it did not fail to respect it.”
On Thursday, a general strike took place in Portugal, the first jointly called by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers/Intersindical (CGTP/IN) and the UGT in 12 years, affecting sectors such as transport, schools, hospitals, and health centers, as well as private companies like AutoEuropa.
