PCP and BE say government will have to give in in solidarity with utility strike

This Friday, PCP and BE leaders expressed solidarity with striking government workers, stressing that wages needed to be increased and that the government would be forced to concede.

Speaking to journalists ahead of a strike picket at the entrance to the Escola Básica e Secundária Passos Manuel in Lisbon, PCP secretary general Paulo Raimundo called “the struggle of public administration workers very just,” stressing that they had “years of successive periods of real loss of wages.”

The Communist leader emphasized that it is the public administration workers who “make the country work,” namely schools, courts, administration and public services, and said that “they should be respected and valued.”

“The government shouldn’t say there is no margin, because there is a margin, it has to match the options that the government doesn’t want to use. “It intends to provide two billion euros in tax breaks, rather than concentrate this opportunity on fair wage increases,” he criticized.

Asked if he thought the strike would force the government to give up, Paulo Raimundo responded that the executive had “gave in” although “very little,” saying that “it has opened the door to higher wages and pensions.” on housing measures, on measures relating to the prices of food and other basic necessities.”

“Now this fight must take advantage of this unlocked door to open the door wide and respond to specific needs,” he said. According to the leader of the PKP, “the government will have to give in, this is impossible.”

“This is not a problem of stubbornness, this is a problem of the need for goals. People are very worried, the pressure is very high for the majority of the population and workers, and the government cannot remain as if it were nothing,” he defended.

Also present at this strike picket, BE coordinator Mariana Mortagua told reporters that Portugal cannot continue to be “entangled in a policy of low wages” that are not enough to provide “the most basic things in life”, and emphasized that “And a significant number of civil servants receive less than a thousand euros.”

“The wages practiced in Portugal make life impossible for most workers, from the public sector to [onde] the loss of income has been very severe in recent years,” he said.

According to the BE coordinator, “The government has only one thing left to do: increase salaries.” “We cannot have the Prime Minister telling the private sector they need to raise wages and then failing to do so in the public sector, while at the same time running a budget surplus that is an insult to all workers living on a thousand euros or less,” he said.

Regarding the public sector strike, Mariana Mortagua said that in her opinion, when “people mobilize, take to the streets,” everything “changes and can change,” adding that “the arrogance of this absolute majority can only be fought with this the ability to mobilize people.”

“The government doesn’t want to give in, but that doesn’t mean it won’t have to give in, and that’s what these mobilizations are for: so that the government has to give in, giving the people what is rightfully theirs, which is a salary that allows them to live , pay the house rent, pay the supermarket bills,” he said.

The General Front of Civil Service Trade Unions (CGTP) announced a national workers’ strike on October 9, which is taking place today, deeming the government’s proposal for a wage increase for 2024 “pathetic.”