“We will have our stores open and we want to believe that we will have a normal operation and therefore meet the standards to which we have always accustomed our customers,” stated Luís Moutinho, CEO of Sonae MC.
When questioned by journalists on the sidelines of an event marking the 40th anniversary of the first Continente store in Portugal, inaugurated on December 10, 1995, about expectations for Continente stores on Thursday, when a general strike is scheduled, Luís Moutinho said he does not foresee “significant impacts.”
“We respect the strike. We respect the right to strike, but having said that, we believe that tomorrow [Thursday] we will not have significant impacts and therefore our stores will be open and available to our customers” and “we act entirely within the law, but above all we work with our people to make them feel good,” he emphasized.
Luís Moutinho reiterated multiple times that he respects the unions but believes in the “best relationship” he has with the group’s workers.
“The general strike is scheduled for tomorrow [Thursday]. We respect the unions, we have a professional relationship with the unions that play their role, but above all, we have an extremely good relationship with our people. People are at the center of our activity, and we believe we have the best relationship with them and that they are indeed satisfied and happy to work at Continente and the other brands,” he argued.
The general strike on Thursday against the Government’s draft reform of labor legislation will be the first strike to unite the two trade union confederations, CGTP and UGT, since June 2013 when Portugal was under ‘troika’ intervention.
Sonae MC announced today its intention to invest 1,000 million euros by 2030 in opening 100 new Continente stores and 150 renovations in Portugal.
