“We didn’t even realise” there was a protest. “We couldn’t hear anything…”
Ricardo Cunha, president of the national union of firefighters (SNBS), has accused the government of using today’s protest outside Campus XII in Lisbon as a pretext for breaking off negotiations and ‘demonising’ firefighters.
As reports have explained, tensions ran high this morning when around 300 uniformed firefighters vented their frustrations while inside the building union leaders were due to discuss salary increases with the government.
But what ended up happening was that the government ‘suspended negotiations’, alleging ‘a lack of conditions’.
Ricardo Cunha suggests this is all baloney: “We didn’t even realise what was going on outside because we couldn’t hear anything inside. We were all taken by surprise. They said that there were no safety conditions, that there were injuries, but we have since realised this was not true. Maybe it was a pretext: when they realized that the unions were all saying that the proposal, as it was, was non-negotiable… It was a way they found to be able to get out of negotiations, by demonising firefighters.”
After the announcement of the suspension, union leaders waited, for around an hour and a half, for the meeting to be resumed. It wasn’t.
They ended up leaving the building, and joining firefighters who remained near the new government headquarters.
The upshot of the morning’s events is that ‘resolve’ among firefighters is now even more determined.
“From now on, all forms of struggle will be considered”, SNBS vice-president Leonel Mateus told Lusa, criticising the government’s ‘proposal’ presented, in spite of the meeting’s ‘suspension’.
This latest proposal is “very similar to the previous ones”, said Ricardo Cunha – suggesting the executive has just used “a juggling act” of measures which boil down pretty much to a handful of nothing.
“The possible salary increase was only in 2027”, he said, adding that the proposed risk allowance “is shameful” and that is why the firefighters have said already that “it was out of the question”.
The exemption allowance would only reach the value of €100 in 2027, but would require an additional 31 hours per month to be added to the 35 hours of work per week, according to Ricardo Cunha.
“This is unrealistic, offensive and goes against the grain of municipalities that use firefighters to enslave them, forcing them to work for hours on end without paying them and this was a way of enslaving them in a legal way,” he said.
Thus, the proposal presented today is not “minimally acceptable nor dignified”.
Ricardo Cunha trusts the Government will “put its hand on its conscience and present a credible proposal”.
He also recalled that firefighters have been protesting for many years for better working conditions.
Source material: Lusa
