In another example of the centre-right government’s ‘re-packaging’ of events and scenarios, the meeting tomorrow with trades union confederation CGTP has been postponed (for a second time).
This time the reasons are confused: the official version is that it is due to “questions of the prime minister’s diary”. But according to minister of Labour Rosário Palma Ramalho it has also to do with the confederation having ‘distanced itself’ from negotiations on the government’s plans for labour reform.
In statements to journalists this morning, Palma Ramalho, referred to the demonstration that CGTP is leading outside parliament this afternoon.
“The right to demonstrate is a fundamental right and, therefore, any entity can exercise it, including CGTP,” she said.
But equally the right to cancel a meeting, to which CGTP was keen to attend, is also presumably the fundamental right of a government that does not want to change its mind.
Ms Palma Ramalho engineered the scenario to one in which she ‘first wants to understand what the CGTP wants’ (…) since “it hasn’t wanted anything, having distanced itself from the negotiations on the Trabalho XXI reform, unlike UGT” (the less radical general union of workers).
What CGTP wants (and the confederation has been very clear on this before, during and after calling the general strike last month) is for the government to ditch its labour reform and start again.
Ms Palma Ramalho will be aware of this. To journalists however, the minister simply said she “will be here to listen” . The meeting appears to have been rescheduled to January 20.
Palma Ramalho also conceded that holding such an important meeting in the middle of the last week of the presidential campaign could be “counterproductive”.
The Trabalho XXI reform was first floated last summer and has from the start infuriated unions which see it as an attack on workers’ hard won rights. Business federations have ‘applauded’ the various measures, arguing, nonetheless, that there is still room for improvement. Commentators have largely agreed with the unions: that this reform is a step too far in the direction of an economy run unashamedly for profit.
Early on in the ‘disquiet’ over Trabalho XXI, presidential candidate Luís Marques Mendes warned there is a difference between an authoritative government and an authoritarian one. He stressed that the latter could risk social peace.
CGTP’s demo is due to start outside parliament at 2.30pm.
Source: LUSA/ SIC Notícias
