More than 80 people gathered today outside the Ministry of Finance in Lisbon, protesting the government’s failure to advance wage negotiations for municipal public transport workers.
The street action was organized by the National Union of Local and Regional Administration Workers, Public Companies, Concessionaires, and Related (STAL). It commenced at the union’s headquarters and continued towards the Ministry of Finance.
During a meeting held before the protest began, a resolution was approved and later delivered to the ministry, directed to the Secretary of State for Public Administration, Marisa Garrido, and the Secretary of State for Local Administration, Silvério Regalado.
The president of STAL, Cristina Torres, stated that the resolution reaffirms “the continuation of the struggle and the justice of their fight for career advancement and better wages.”
“The workers also decided to continue this struggle on October 7, with plenary sessions in all municipalities that have municipal public transport services, and to schedule a strike for all these services on November 10. The goal is to draw the attention of the mayors to ensure public passenger transport services, but it is necessary that this is done with rights,” Torres added.
Sérgio Santos, a driver for 18 years at the Coimbra Municipal Urban Transport Services (SMTUC), appealed to the Mayor of Coimbra, José Manuel Silva, not to “forget these workers.”
“At the beginning, he said that all strikes and demonstrations were our right, and that we had the right to do them, and that we should fight. If he won, he would help us. Now he responds that strikes are not the best form of struggle: what he gave us was a handful of nothing,” Santos stated.
Cristina Torres emphasized that in Coimbra, the mayor, “as soon as he was elected president, began to consider that fighting is not what workers should do.”
“A mayor who, during the electoral campaign, says one thing and as soon as he is elected says the opposite, does not deserve our trust,” added the STAL president, two weeks before the official campaign for the municipal elections on October 12.
At the demonstration, which was attended by several dozen SMTUC workers, Luísa Silva, the regional coordinator of STAL in Coimbra, noted that what prevents the union from negotiating with the national executive is “a lack of willingness on the part of the Government.”
The coordinator recalled a “chaotic meeting” with Silvério Regalado in March this year, during which the official promised “that the career dossier would be ready to be approved by the time the Government takes office.”
“Then came the blackout, which caused another meeting to be canceled. I don’t know if the blackout still affects the ministry,” she added, noting that a request for a meeting was sent after the government was elected.
“We were ignored,” stressed Luísa Silva.
In the resolution, the municipal transport workers of Coimbra, Barreiro, Bragança, Portalegre, Nazaré, and Sintra demand the “maintenance of municipal or municipalized public transport services, the restoration of professional careers, notably that of a sole agent in municipalized transport.”
They also demand a salary increase not less than 15%, with a minimum of 150 euros, an increase in meal allowance, the attribution of hardship and insalubrity supplements, full use of vacation days, and improved working conditions.
In a statement, STAL explained that until 2008, the base salary of those professionals (734.62 euros) was “about 63% higher than the then minimum national wage (450 euros).”
“Today […] their base salary is the national minimum wage!” it emphasized.
Stating that it had sent proposals for “recovery and valorization” of those workers’ salaries to the government, STAL said that the PSD/CDS executive “continues without deciding anything.”
