Portugal unions to hold general strike

File picture: sxc.hu

File picture: sxc.hu

Published Oct 19, 2011

Share

Portugal's biggest unions said on Wednesday they will stage a general strike next month against austerity measures by the government as it tries to meet budget goals imposed as part of a 78-billion-euro ($107 bln) bailout.

The CGTP umbrella union called the November 24 general strike after the centre-right government announced an austere 2012 draft budget this week which included the elimination of civil servants' year-end and holiday bonuses for two years.

Deep spending cuts, including in key areas such as health care, and across-the-board tax hikes, promise to send Portugal into its deepest recession in decades next year with an economic contraction of 2.8 percent.

Unemployment is currently at 12.1 percent, its highest since the 1980s, and the government expects it to rise further to 13.5 percent next year.

“At this moment the impoverishment of the country, the scale of the recession and unemployment and the injustices we are seeing justifies this strike,” Manuel Carvalho da Silva, CGTP head, told journalists. “We have to fight without hesitation and do what is necessary.”

Portugal's other main union, the UGT, is set to join the industrial action to be held on the anniversary of last year's general strike, and its leaders are meeting later on Wednesday.

PROTESTS

Austerity measures have provoked demonstrations across Europe, with Greek protestors clashing with police on Wednesday as tens of thousands rallied at the start of a general strike there against bitterly resented cuts.

About 40,000 people marched in Portugal on Saturday as part of the “day of rage” protests, galvanised by the Occupy Wall Street movement which also led to violent clashes on the streets of Rome.

Portuguese industrial action in reaction to the economic measures has so far been low-key but with harsher austerity set to push the country into a deep recession next year, that could change.

Carvalho da Silva said the government was only yielding to the interests of the 'troika' - the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.

“We think Portugal is being governed right now through a kind of state of occupation,” he said. “We are running grave risks when we have a government that does not understand the interests of the Portuguese but only the contents of the memorandum with the troika.”

Under Portugal's bailout agreement, the government must cut the budget deficit to 5.9 percent of gross domestic product this year from 9.8 percent last year. Next year, it must be cut further to 4.5 percent.

Those targets and an unexpected hole in the budget this year of more than 3 billion euros have obliged the government to take additional austerity measures, including a one-off 50 percent tax on all workers' year-end bonuses.

It has also extended the working day by half-an-hour. - Reuters

Related Topics: