CTT Post Office workers are planning a mass rally in Lisbon on Friday in protest to the ongoing raft of closures which they fear will continue to grow.
Management initiated the ‘cull’ with 22 branches, spreading upwards from Lisbon. But since then another 14 post offices have been officially added to the list.
Representing the national syndicate of Post Office and Telecommunications workers, Vítor Narciso warns of another four branches (all in the Lisbon area) – taking closures up to 40 – but claims “there will be many more”, suggesting 60 Post Offices in all will be consigned to the scrapheap.
This is one of the reasons for Friday’s mass demo and consequent ‘go-slow’ at many branches.
Said José Arsénio of Sindelteco, the democratic syndicate of telecommunications and media workers, “Cancelling the strike is out of the question, unless the government announces the reversal of (CTT’s) privatisation”.
Around 3000 Post Office workers are expected to take part in Friday’s demo.
According to tabloid Correio da Manhã, closures still to be announced will leave the interior of the country very poorly served. Some services can be ‘transferred’ to parish councils and even supermarkets, explains the paper, but they will not include the distribution of pension money – one of the only reasons many nationals use their local post office.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
