Unions say strike has 100% adherence
There is 100% adherence to the strike mounted by workers of state rail company, Comboios de Portugal.
According to union ‘Sindicato Ferroviário da Revisão Comercial Itinerante’, or SFRCI (which represents ticket inspectors, ticket office workers and sales staff), no trains have been running since midnight last night – and there are no ‘minimum services’.
Union leader António Lemos reiterated to Lusa that this is a strike to demand better pay conditions for all the company’s workers.
“After exhaustive negotiations with the management of CP – Comboios de Portugal, it was possible to reach a satisfactory agreement regarding salary increases for the current year, but this agreement has been awaiting approval from the government since February 2025”, he explained.
Over the weekend, CP publicly acknowledged that there would be “serious train disruption” with train disruptions likely to be felt until Tuesday/ Wednesday.
Yesterday, in a statement signed by 13 unions, including SFRCI, the workers’ representatives accused the company of stalling negotiations because the government had not authorised the proposal CP was going to sign with the workers (ie had not okayed the extra spending).
In the note, they said there was a meeting on Saturday afternoon between CP and the unions, in which “the chairman of CP informed all the unions that the government had not authorised the management to apply the last proposal” presented.
According to the unions, this is an “unprecedented process” since management presented a counter-proposal on Thursday, only to have their proposal two days later and removed from the negotiating table.
The unions stress they are “willing to accept” the conditions of the company’s proposal on Thursday and that it could be “an important step towards solving a structural problem at CP” – but that now there is no agreement.
“The chairman of the board informed [the unions at Saturday’s meeting] that the government had rejected the proposal because they were in management and could not authorise the measures provided for in the agreement,” reads the joint statement.
Lusa contacted CP and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, but only received a short response from the latter, which confirmed that the company’s proposal “does not fall within the remit of a caretaker government”.
According to the unions, CP’s proposal was for a new increase from January 2025, to be added to the €34 applied by management, so that the difference with the 2018 SMN – National Minimum Wage – would be restored, a variable increase depending on each index.
The company would also give all workers a 4% raise in December 2025 and reduce the length of stay in the first index to one year, in the second to two years, in the following to three and in the last to four, starting in January this year.
The note also states that a two-day strike, planned for May7 and 8 is still very much on the cards.
Source material: LUSA
