Several unions and associations in the internal security sector are starting a series of protest and awareness actions at Portuguese airports today, in the run-up to World Youth Day (WYD), challenging current working conditions.
The initiatives are organized by the Permanent Coordinating Committee of Unions and Associations of Professionals of the Security Forces and Services (CCP), starting with the holding of concentrations and the delivery of pamphlets on the conditions of these professionals, taking place at the airports of Lisbon, Porto and Faro and at Gare do Oriente (Monday and Tuesday), in addition to the seaport of Lisbon (Wednesday).
“We will be concentrated in these places in some periods of the morning and afternoon and, with the people who arrive in our country, convey to them what the security forces feel, the disregard they feel on the part of the Government, what is at stake and what are the demands that are common to each structure”, says the president of the Association of Guard Professionals (APG / GNR).
Speaking to Lusa, César Nogueira stressed that the priority issues for the set of security forces and services include changing the remuneration statutes and discounts for health subsystems, but recalled that there are other transversal problems, “namely, the lack of staff”, which the leader considers “flagrant and comprehensive” and which should be felt more visibly during WYD.
“We know that many professionals will be mobilized to the Lisbon area from other parts of the country. Every day it is already difficult for professionals to reach all situations due to lack of staff, logically it will be more difficult, because there will be thousands of professionals who will be moved to Lisbon “, says the leader of APG / GNR, continuing:” People’s safety is always guaranteed, but, once again, with the sacrifice of professionals “.
César Nogueira, who is also the national secretary of the CCP, said that the professionals of the security forces and services are “tired” of the words of recognition of the political power and are waiting for answers to their demands, stressing that “the protests will not end” with the realization of WYD.
“The actions are not going to stop at WYD, because we know – not least because we have been doing this for many years – that we have to be persistent,” notes the GNR officer, who highlights the strike of the prison guard union (one of the two CCP member structures entitled to strike) between today and Wednesday.
“The other structures cannot go on strike, but we will be at the sites, culminating in the Day, on the 2nd, near the official residence of the President of the Republic when he is receiving his holiness, the Pope. The protests will only end when, in fact, the two issues are at least under negotiation so that they can be resolved as soon as possible,” he concludes.
The CCP includes the APG/GNR, the Trade Union Association of Police Professionals (ASPP/PSP), the Socioprofessional Association of the Maritime Police (ASPPM), the National Union of the Prison Guard Corps (SNCGP) and the Trade Union Association of ASAE Employees (ASF-ASAE).