Former general secretaries of the CGTP and UGT call for a general strike “in view of the pernicious content of the labor package presented by the Government”, considering that the document “is a violent attack on workers’ rights”.
Manuel Carvalho da Silva, Arménio Carlos and Isabel Camarinha (CGTP) and José Manuel Torres Couto, João Proença and Carlos Silva (UGT), in a joint manifesto to which the Lusa agency had access, appealed to “workers” to “actively” participate in the general strike called for December 11th.
“The negative nature of the labor package is immediately indicated by the fact that the AD Government of Luís Montenegro hid its intention to approve new labor legislation in its electoral program, If it had been good for workers, the Government would have published it to obtain more votes”, reads a statement.
The six former union leaders also highlighted that the labor package does not provide for any measure aimed at “regulating labor relations resulting from the progressive introduction of new technologies, namely robotization and artificial intelligence (AI)”.
They also consider that the measures contribute to “increase the exploitation of workers, to satisfy business owners who do not innovate technologically and live on a policy based on low wages”.
Unionists also refute the Government’s decision, stating that there is “any individual or organization studying the Portuguese economy that has evoked the need to change labor legislation, as a necessary condition for Portugal’s progress”.
“The Government must withdraw the harmful labor package”, urge the former leaders of the two unions.
The CGTP and UGT called a general strike for December 11th, in response to the proposed reform of labor legislation presented by the Government, being the first strike to bring together the two unions since June 2013, when Portugal was under intervention by the ‘troika’.