During the closing stages of the 4th EU-CELAC Summit held today in Santa Marta, Colombia, Luís Montenegro addressed the media about the announcement by CGTP on Saturday and UGT today, regarding their joint general strike planned for December 11, motivated by the labor package currently under social dialogue.
“Frankly, I can’t see any reason for this stance from the unions other than interests that, in my view, shouldn’t be prevalent, which are the interests of the parties mainly associated with managing these unions,” he stated.
Montenegro specified the parties he referred to: “I’m talking about the Communist Party, which wants to assert its presence through its union network in CGTP, and the Socialist Party, which also wants to showcase its political opposition presence by leveraging some influence within UGT,” he criticized.
The Prime Minister reiterated that the strike call is “untimely and even anachronistic,” since no legislation has yet been approved by the Council of Ministers.
“No one can understand it, and in my opinion, it doesn’t reflect well on the labor movement. I believe the unions are fully capable of fulfilling their task and role – I don’t want to constrain them, and I think it’s great they represent the labor interests of Portuguese workers – but when the country’s reality doesn’t align with the unions, something is wrong, and it’s not the country,” he argued.
When asked about Chega’s challenge to retract some parts of the labor package, Montenegro expressed willingness to discuss it with all parties once the bill reaches parliament, even though PSD and CDS-PP do not hold a majority to pass it alone.
