Commitment to a 24-hour strike by Carris workers, drivers and brakemen for higher wages and 35 hours of work a week was more than 90% at around 8 a.m., union leader Manuel Leal told Luce.
“I still can’t give you the exact number of members, but we clearly have more than 90% members,” said Luce Manuel Leal of the Portuguese Road and Urban Transport Workers’ Union (STRUP), praising “all the drivers and the brakemen who yesterday from 10 p.m. [quarta-feira] are joining this 24-hour strike en masse.”
According to the union leader, at around 8:00 a.m. there were few buses and trams running compared to what would normally be provided.
“At around 10:30 we will have a plenary session, a meeting at Pontinha station, to discuss the situation and the measures that need to be taken regarding the process of developing the struggle to achieve the demands,” he said.
Carris workers, drivers and brakemen have announced a 24-hour strike today in protest at management’s lack of response to demands for real wage increases and a 35-hour work week.
The strike was initiated by the network workers at dawn at 10pm on Wednesday, and for the rest of the road workers it began today at 3am.
According to STRUP, which is part of the Federation of Transport and Communications Trade Unions (FECTTRANS), the fixed-line sectors are on strike today from 00:00 to 23:59.
The union stresses that the strike notice applies to all workers who start their working period before 00:00 today or whose longest period of work corresponds to that date.
The union structure states that the Arbitration Court determined the minimum services for the strike, considering necessary, in particular, the operation of exclusive transport for the disabled, the emergency department and the medical center.
According to STRUP, the Arbitration Court did not accept the company’s proposal, which sought “maximum services” for bus traffic.
At the last plenary session on June 19, the workers considered it “unacceptable that the Carris (CA) board of directors continues to operate without responding to constant demands”, despite the “net profit of the company of 9.5 million euros” projected by the company in the report and accounts for 2023.
Among the demands, the workers are demanding a 100-euro increase in the wage scale, an increase in the cost of food benefits, an increase to 35 hours per week, including travel time to and from the drop-off points, and a move to the Lisbon metropolitan area.
At the last plenary session, STRUP was instructed to continue the process of fighting the strike during the first two hours and the last two hours of daily working time in the week from 15 to 19 July.