Around 200 public administration shop stewards, union leaders and activists demonstrated in downtown Lisbon today in a protest organised by the Frente Comum (Common Front) to demand that the future government “immediately increase salaries and improve careers”. Demonstrators gathered after 3 pm in the Chiado area and walked up Rua Garrett towards Praça Luís de Camões, chanting slogans like “the struggle continues in the services and the street” and “a pay rise is fundamental” as tourists filmed and took photographs.Sebastião Santana, leading the protest, said that, even though the new government has not yet been formed, this day of demands “makes sense” because “the problems of public administration workers have not been solved – quite the opposite, they have been aggravated by the lack of response” this far.
Unions protest in Lisbon ahead of new government being sworn in
image from Frente Comum Facebook page
