Strike is “response to government’s unwilligness” to negotiate pay rises requested
Portugal’s National Union of Sapper Firefighters (SNBS) will hold a national strike on January 15 and has called for a demonstration near parliament, its president, Ricardo Cunha, announced on Friday.
Speaking to Lusa, he explained that the strike is a “response to the government’s unwillingness” to negotiate the increases requested.
“Following the government’s failure to meet the deadline for resuming the negotiation process on the career review, within the timetable previously defined by the government,” the SNBS held a board meeting on Thursday and decided to âhold a national demonstration on January 15, at 12pm, in front of the Assembly of the Republic,â the union said in a statement.
A national strike is scheduled for the same day, between 7am and 10pm, covering various services such as training, instruction, training, administrative services, exercises, prevention and technical advice.
Emergency services related to health or civil protection will not be included in the strike notice.
At the beginning of the month, the government suspended negotiations with the sapper firefighters, accusing them of applying “illegitimate pressure”, with a protest that included firecrackers, torches and smoke at government headquarters.
“There was no reason to cancel negotiations,” Cunha said at the time, considering that âit was a way for the government to evade its responsibility, because in reality it had nothing to presentâ as a proposal for increases.
Left out of this first initiative is the promise of action against “municipalities that don’t come out publicly and distance themselves from the position the government has adopted,” as previously warned by the SNBS.
The sappers are municipal employees, but their career is regulated by the central government, which adds complexity to the negotiations.
“It’s the government, the Assembly of the Republic, that has to regulate through the law,” explained Cunha, adding that councils then must apply what is legislated. “The government should support, at least in part, some of the investment that the municipalities make in the firefighters.â That is not happening at present, he stressed.
The government has insisted that there are no conditions for returning to the negotiating table, refusing to discuss with the union under duress and in the face of what it has called “illegal behaviour”.
Source: LUSA
