Three separate public sector worker strikes have been scheduled for this month, involving airport police, schoolteachers and Algarve nurses.
The police announced their ‘date’ earlier this week (click here).
Nurses have now announced theirs (for January 24 in three Algarve hospitals and various health centres) just as teachers call a nationwide walkout for January 31.
The news came as MPs in parliament approved the State Budget for 2020 ‘in its generality’ – involving paltry pay increases for civil servants of just 0.3%.
PM António Costa has intimated that his party could go beyond this figure, but for now, ‘it is what it is’.
According to Jornal Barlavento, the nurses strike in the Algarve will have “mass adhesion” as SEP, the syndicate of Portuguese nurses, feels utterly let down.
Said spokesman Nuno Manjua, politicians cannot announce the national health system as a priority when they “deceive” health professionals with pre-election promises that are not followed through.
This “lamentable stance has only contributed to the discredibilisation of politicians and institutional leaders” and leaving health professionals all the more determined to take a stand.
As for teachers, they are upset that the OE2020 hasn’t gone further to redress shortcomings in their sector which they claim “remains financially stagnant after a decade in which public finance was reduced by 12%”.
With the OE2020 now moving to “discussions in speciality”, teachers union FENPROF is calling for a ‘human chain’ protest outside parliament on January 17 when education minister Tiago Brandão Rodrigues is due to address the house.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
