The General-Secretary of the PCP, in a statement to the Media, stressed that " today’s General Strike called by CGTP-IN which constituted the largest struggle this government has faced up to now, was an important expression of the profound reasons of popular discontent and protest and a clear affirmation of the need for change", further pointing the deep and heartfelt reasons that demanded this type of struggle, namely the half million Portuguese who are in unemployment (the highest rate of the past 20 years) and the job precariousness affecting more than 1.2 million workers)
Today’s General Strike called by CGTP-IN which constituted the largest struggle this government has faced up to now, was an important expression of the profound reasons of popular discontent and protest and a clear affirmation of the need for change.
There are deep and heartfelt reasons that demanded this type of struggle!
The situation in the country has reached an unsustainable level for the workers and the population in general. Around half a million Portuguese are in unemployment, the highest rate of the past 20 years. The job precariousness affecting more than 1.2 million workers constitutes a factor of instability in the bonds of labour and of life.
The changes of the functions and role of the state, with the extinction and privatisation of public services jeopardize the National Health Service and attacks the most elementary rights of the Public Administration workers and the populations.
In the name of flexecurity, the government is preparing to ease individual dismissals without just cause, instituting the so-called on the hour dismissal and to deregulate work schedules, careers, functions, pay and working conditions.
Social injustices and inequalities worsen, the purchasing power of the population lowers, the devaluation of pensions and retirement pay has begun, the poverty and debt of the families rises, in contrast with the highest ever profits of the economic and financial groups. In 2006, just eight companies had 5.3 thousand million euros in profits and some private company managers earn 130 times more than the workers’ minimum national wage.
These are very strong reasons for a General Strike and for its great support by the workers.
The May 30 General Strike is a great Strike with a strong support around the whole country and in all areas of activity.
We have to point out the great dimension in the transport sector – with full or almost full stoppages in Metropolitano de Lisboa [Lisbon underground], Transtejo, Soflusa, TSTs, Urban Transport in the cities of Braga, Guimarães, Aveiro, Coimbra, Viseu, Barreiro, Rodoviária Entre Douro e Minho, Rodoviária da Beira Litoral, Moisés Correia de Oliveira, Empresa de Viação do Algarve, and other road transport companies, significant adherence in several CP [railways] lines and the expression reached in several seaports (namely their closure in the Algarve and the Azores), and in air transport with the cancellation of 63 flights at Lisbon Airport, 18 at Faro Airport and the stoppage of SATA in the Azores.
Also to be stressed are many other adherences in important industrial companies such as Estaleiros [shipyards] de Viana do Castelo, Lisnave Shipyards (with stoppage by precarious labourers and hundreds of immigrant workers), Arsenal do Alfeite, Portucel [paper mills] (with a stoppage by the contractors), Portcast, Lear, Blaupunkt, Robert Bosch, Qimonda, Centralcer, Unicer, Coca-Cola, Danone, Saint Goban, Tudor, Cimianto, Brwning, Autoeuropa (with stoppage of one of the two production lines), Rodhe, Corticeira Amorim, Amorim Revestimentos.
There was a great support in Public Administration (involving Courts, Registry, Finance Offices, Citizen Shops, Social Security Services, etc.); in the health sector, with stoppages in the Health Centres and main hospitals reaching around 70 to 90%; in schools with the closing of hundreds of schools; in Local Administration with stoppages in all areas mainly in garbage collection which in most of the country’s municipalities reached 80 to 100%.
There was a strong support from the Postal workers around 75 to 80% and in many other areas whose processing is still under way.
We have to point out many thousands of workers with precarious labour bonds who went on strike. These are acts of great courage and consciousness!
There are sectors which until now had never joined a General Strike and which for the first time joined, very significant in many cases. That was what took place in the telecommunications call-centers.
The participation of young workers, particularly affected by precariousness and low wages is another aspect of this General Strike.
A participation which is all the more significant as the General Strike took place in a situation of a wide offensive by the government against the right to strike, with many employers using hard and sophisticated ways of blackmail and repression. In the public administration and in the transport sector, the government gave the worst example in its attempt to question the right to strike. In hundreds of companies the threats and illegal measures of cancellation of bonuses, on jobs multiplied.
The decision taken by so many Portuguese workers – faced with financial difficulties and high level of debts, and for whom the loss of a day’s wages means a lot – to join, holds a particular meaning in this situation.
The My 30 General Strike is that which garnered the highest social support. Its reasons were understood and supported by a large part of the Portuguese people and shown in different ways.
The preparation process constituted in itself one of the most important movements of explanation, participation and mobilization for many years. The support of 140 Union structures, dozens of thousands of activists involved, more than seven thousand plenary meetings held, dozens of thousands of explanation actions carried out, reveal an impressive strength of mass social intervention which projects beyond the General Strike itself.
The government can well try to diminish the strike (with little creativity compared to previous governments who did and said the same), saying that it is a partial strike, and project a virtual image that only they see, as if any General Strike, here or anywhere else in the world, had to be total.
And besides the thousands of companies with high support and in which the effects of the strike are not visible to people in general, the support of the transport sectors and its effects in Lisbon and dozens of cities around the country, as well as sectors in Public Administration among others, deny the government without any appeal.
Hooked on creative statistics, the government tries to conceal that this was the greatest protest and the greatest struggle it has faced during these more than two years of mandate.
The PCP greets the Portuguese workers for their great adherence to the General Strike.
The PCP greets the transport workers, for the great amplitude of their paralysation targeted by the government to withdraw the right to strike set in the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic as an inalienable right, for the adherence expressed and in particular those who, even under the arbitrarily imposed conditions of minimum services, resisted and went on this General Strike, the first stage of a new step in the struggle for the abidance of the right to strike in the transport sector.
The PCP greets the thousands of workers with precarious labour bonds who, showing a high class conscience, joined the General Strike.
The PCP greets CGTP-IN, the unitary Trade Union movement and all the structures representing the workers for the action and capacity of organization shown.
CGTP-IN confirms and affirms itself as the great Trade Union Central of the Portuguese workers, an insurmountable reference for the defence of the interests of the workers and the future of the country.
After the May 30 General Strike nothing will remain the same as far as the government is concerned and its arrogance and despise for the living conditions of those who work. The Portuguese workers made their voice heard with great vigour: They told the government that the situation of millions of Portuguese is unsustainable; they showed the government that the workers and the Portuguese people exist, and that it cannot mistake Portugal for the economic and financial groups and their insatiable interests and privileges; they also demonstrated they are a force to be reckoned to fight, to resist and impose a change of course in national politics.
Today’s Strike constituted a powerful warning to the government. It was not the end of the road but a passing point for other struggles!
After the May 30 General Strike, if the government persists in not listening to the feelings of the workers and the people, if it tries to go ahead with easing individual dismissals without just cause, with on the hour dismissals, it knows that there is a force able to prevent it.
By differing itself from other political forces, the PCP was solidary and active in the General Strike, because it stands for the struggle for rights, interests and aspirations of those who work, for a fairer and more democratic country.
We renew our forever standing pledge to the Portuguese workers and people!
