Presidential candidate Luís Marques Mendes stated this Thursday, November 20, that he believes there will be an agreement between the UGT trade union center and the Government regarding the reform of labor law, considering that important signals were given on Wednesday.
Despite considering it inevitable that the general strike called by the two trade unions (UGT and CGTP) will take place on December 11, the former president of the PSD considered that there could be an agreement, in the future, between UGT and the Government regarding the reform of labor law.
“The most important thing is to carry out a reform with a social agreement, and with an agreement involving the UGT, which is a very, very responsible union center. And I think we are on the way to that”, said Luís Marques Mendes, who spoke to journalists before having lunch in the blue canteens of the University of Coimbra, in a pre-campaign action.
The presidential candidate, “unlike everyone who thinks this will end in rupture”, believes that “it will end in an agreement”.
“This is from my experience over many years. Don’t let yourself be rushed into day-to-day life, because this is a very long process”, he stressed.
To support this belief, Luís Marques Mendes pointed to Wednesday’s meeting between the Government and UGT, in which he saw the situation as “very clear”, after having been “very tense ten days ago”.
“The strike will obviously happen, but that doesn’t seem the most dramatic to me. The important thing is to maintain a spirit of dialogue and balance even after the strike. And yesterday [quarta-feira] it was a great sign,” he said.
For Marques Mendes, the fact that UGT asked for more time to analyze the Government’s proposals and the fact that the Government agreed to give more time shows that both parties are interested in dialogue and negotiation.
“Yesterday helped to clear the air. And I think that in the coming weeks we will have other days of clearing,” he said.
The strike called by the two union centrals comes in reaction to the Government’s proposed reform of labor law, which proposes increasing the duration of fixed-term contracts, the return of the individual time bank, the end of the brake on external hiring after layoffs, the review of parental leave and the reinforcement of mandatory minimum services in the event of a strike, among other proposed changes.