Portugal - Widespread strikes in response to government austerity plans - April 28, 2010

The government austerity plan, designed to cut the budget deficit to 2.8% of gross domestic product in 2013, includes freezing public sector wages, capping recruitment and privatising several public companies. In response, the public transport workers joined postal workers, who on Monday 26 April started a strike set to continue until May 7. “We question whether it should be the workers who pay for this crisis. We don't think it should be, it cannot only be the workers who pay,” said Manuel Leal, spokesman for the Fedtrans transport union. According to the unions involved, some 20,000 workers took strike action from 26 to 28 April at 16 public transport companies affecting around one million passengers. Parliament administration workers started their strike on Wednesday 28 April, whereas truckers' unions plan a walkout in May.

English: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE63Q1P720100427 via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Portugal

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI atwww.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009.