Today’s General Strike is a powerful action to defeat the Labour Package [of labour laws] which was presented by the PSD/CDS Government and supported by Chega, IL [parties] and the bosses’ confederations. It is a clear rejection of social regression and of the heightened exploitation that they wish to impose upon the workers.
It is an unequivocal rejection of the attempts to worsen the already unsustainable conditions of low wages; to promote sackings without just case; to perpetuate precariousness and make it more widespread; to deregulate working hours even further; to attack the rights of parents and children; to attack collective bargaining, the right to strike, the right to trade union activity and information.
It is a day of struggle which is also a strong expression of the workers’ discontentment and indignation with the rising cost of living, with the degradation and dismantling of public services, with the difficulties in finding housing, and in defense of more rights and better living standards.
This General Strike, which is an integral part of the impressive wave of struggles that have occurred since the Summer of 2025, is taking place at a crucial time for the Country’s life, following the submission by the Government to the Assembly of the Republic [Parliament] of the Labour Package. This Strike is a clear sign of readiness to intensify and step up the struggle to defeat the Labour Package and for the demands of higher wages and pensions, better living and labour standards, more justice, dignity and respect.
Noteworthy is the participation of workers who had never before joined a strike; of workers with effective or precarious contracts; with a prominent participation of the youth, of women, of immigrants. This General Strike is at the level of the biggest that have ever taken place. It had a high levels of participation and a major impact throught the entire Country, with strong expression in the various sectors of activity, both in the private and in the public sector. It is a great assertion of the strength and unity of the workers.
It impacted the various industrial sectors, in many companies such as Groz Beckert, Ficocables, AAPICO, Browning, ZF, Mitsubishi, Faurécia, Aumovio, Bosch, Apptiv, Amtrol-Alpha, Herdemar, Horse (ex-Renault), Huf, GLN-Novares, DS Smith, Exide, Celcat, Frismag, Hanon, Visteon, Teijin, Forvia, Sovena, SMP, Euroresinas, Orica, Hutchinson, the Panasqueira Mines, Tearfil, Mabera (ex-Coelima), Tescap, Huber Tricot, Ecco, Paulo Oliveira, Penteadora, Gallo Vidro, Viroc, Super Bock, Lactogal, Cerealto, Cervejas of Madeira, Carnes Nobre, Bimbo, Cofisa, Vitacress, Silotagus, as well as in waste disposal companies such as Valorsul, Amarsul ERSUC and Gesamb.
It impacted transports, with the total stoppage of the Lisbon Underground, CP [rail company], IP [infrastructures of Portugal], STCP [Porto bus company], municipal transports in Braga, Coimbra, Barreiro and Portalegre; as well as high percentages of participation in the Porto Underground, in the Underground of the South Bank of the Tagus, in Carris [Lisbon bus company], Transtejo/Soflusa [Lisbon river transprts], in Atlantic Ferries, in the private road passenger transports. The national ports registered high levels of participation, and most of them stopped working. In air transports there was a near total participation, except for the [legally imposed] minimum services.
It impacted Public Administration, with major participations in the health sector (hospitals and health centers); with most schools closed; with impact in higher education institutions, in social security, in the justice system, in the fiscal services, in museums and other services. A strong participation in Local Government must also be noted.
It impacted the sector of logistics, big commercial distribution, hotels and catering, the finance sector and the social sector, namely in the IPSS and Misericórdias [Private Institutions of Social Soldarity].
It impacted other sectors, with a large participation in the postal and telecommunictaion services, the energy sector, in cultural, artistic and shows, in the mass media, as well as with the stoppage of the fish auction centers.
The General Strike also involved the participation of many thousands of people in hundreds of picket lines and in dozens of rallies and demonstrations through the streets of the whole Country.
The PCP greets the workers for their participation in the General Strike. It greets CGTP-IN, the great trade union central of the Portuguese workers, that convened the General Strike. It greets the trade union structures and other workers’ organisations who took part and joined [the Strike], as well as the thousands of trade union leaders and shop stewards, members of Workers’ Councils and all the workers who took an active part in raising awareness, mobilizing and organizing, thus ensuring the success of this major and timely day of struggle.
This is a great General Strike, whose success is all the more noteworthy as it had to confront and defeat major pressure, blackmail, and the abuse of the [legally imposed] minimum services which sought to restrict the right to strike, as well as many attempts at manipulation and silencing.
The labour legislation is already very unfavourable for the workers. What is needed is to ensure the defeat and abandonment of the Labour Package, and to move forward with the repeal of the harmful norms which already today are part of the labour legislation.
The workers and the people, who already have their lives marked by growing difficulties, by a mounting cost of living and by profound injustice and inequalities that stand in sharp contrast with the colossal profits that are being ammassed by the economic groups and the multinations, have made their voice heard. The strength of the workers’ struggle has highlighted the need to break with this policy and this path of injustice and of national disaster, which is being spearheaded by the PSD/CDS Government, with the support of IL and Chega [parties]. To break with its anti-social, anti-democratic and anti-patriotic policies, of which the Labour Package is an integral part, together with the attack on the National Health Service, on Social Security, on Public Education. To break with the privatizations, with the policies that deny the right to housing, that hand over many thousands of millions of Euros of public resources to big capital. To prevent any understanding that seeks to deal a subversive blow against the Constitution of the Republic.
The course that is needed is to raise wages, to oppose precariousness, to value collective bargaining, to defend and strengthen public services, to ensure the right to housing and the rights of parents and children, to promote national production and public investment.
Today’s General Strike, and the entire process of struggle that preceded it, and which will continue, is a sign of militancy and of hope. It shows that it is possible to defeat the Labour Package and that there is sufficient strength to defend the rights of the workers and the people, to defend the values of [the] April [Revolution], to break with the right-wing policy and open the path which the Country needs, where the rights of those that work are a requirement and the very goal of development.
There is sufficient strength to impose a path towards a just Portugal, developed and sovereign, with the fulfilment of the Constitution of the Republic and the implement of the rights that it enshrines. This path is in the hands of the workers, of the youth, of the people, of that immense force which was today once again on display.