CDU demands salary increase this year, not on Saints’ Day

This Saturday, the general secretary of the PKP defended the wage increase and that no worker should receive less than a thousand euros in 2024, refusing to classify the measure as “a saint’s day, not an afternoon”.

“We confirm the national priority, which is a general increase in wages. This is urgent, and this is now, not in 2028 or 2030. In 2024, no worker will be able to receive a salary of less than a thousand euros per month,” he said. Paulo Raimundo.

Paulo Raimundo spoke about the initiative to present thirty priority measures of the CDU (PCP/PEV coalition) for the country, proposals that have been known since the end of January, when the electoral program for the next legislative elections was presented.

During the presentation, which took place at a hotel in Lisbon in front of the national headquarters of the PCP, the communist leader said that “the country has the resources and there is a real and urgent opportunity to increase wages,” warning that what is needed “is making choices.” .

“It’s time to end collective bargaining and restore better treatment for workers. “Decisive measures to intensify collective bargaining and increase wages by 15%, a minimum of 150 euros for all public and private workers,” he added.

“Here in the PKP and the CDU we say what we want. We don’t talk about taxes to capture the votes of the poor and increase the profits of the rich, we don’t raise the issue of the National Health Service. Service, in order to justify the allocation of even more public money to the business of fighting the disease, we are not postponing salary increases for St. Nevers Day in the afternoon, when it is required to respond here and now to the rising cost of living,” he said, guaranteed.

Raimundo said the CDU does not present itself “on the left and then pursue right-wing policies” and does not “say one thing before the elections and then do the exact opposite.”

The CDU proposes reducing “working hours to 35 hours a week, fighting the deregulation of working hours and reducing the probationary period,” as well as “legal restrictions on shift work and continuous work and their compensation,” and the abolition of the public management evaluation system.

Other measures highlighted by the PKP secretary general were the restoration of the retirement age to 65 years and an extraordinary increase in pensions this year by 7.5%, a minimum of 70 euros, with retroactive effect to January, even for those who renewed last year. .

In healthcare, the CDU wants to attract and retain more talent through “an exclusive dedication regime at SNS that guarantees a 50 percent increase in remuneration and a 25 percent increase in seniority.”

For teachers, a full accounting of length of service and employment is proposed after three years, and for security forces – a “significant increase” in the risk allowance.

In the housing sector, the CDU proposes in its election program for the March 10 elections the provision of 50,000 new public houses, a regime of support for banks to increase interest rates on housing loans, regulation and reduction of rents, as well as the repeal of the “law on evictions and the stability of tenancy agreements on a ten-year basis.” “

Paulo Raimundo also pushed for the creation of a public network of free kindergartens and the creation of 100,000 new places by 2028, as well as the abolition of tuition fees, strengthening school social activities in higher education and increasing the supply of public university residences.

The CDU also proposes to reduce VAT on gas, electricity and telecommunications to 6%, introduce an emergency tax on profits from banking, energy and large distribution networks, abolish public-private partnerships and prevent the privatization of TAP.

Raimundo noted that these measures have “budget implications, both from a revenue and spending perspective,” and said the current state budget “needs to be deeply corrected.”