This Friday, the general secretary of the CGTP, Armenio Carlos, considered “striking” the response that public officials gave to the Government with the strong adhesion to the strike and the national demonstration in Lisbon, hoping that the executive will listen to the workers.
“This struggle is remarkable from the point of view of the response of public administration workers”, said the leader of the inter-union at the end of the demonstration, which left this afternoon from the Marquis of Pombal towards the official residence of the Prime Minister, António Costa, in São Bento, who gathered between six and seven thousand people, according to police data.
Armenio Carlos, who will cease to be secretary general of the CGTP at the next congress, on February 15, considered that his mandate “could not end better”, stressing that this will not be his last manifestation, as he will continue to participate in the actions of fight as a worker.
“As long as we continue to have injustices and inequalities, those leaders who leave the CGTP in mid-February will remain faithful to the CGTP project and be on the side of the workers, whether from the private or the public,” said the leader of the inter-union in statements to Lusa .
Armenio Carlos stressed that this Friday’s protest was “an example of discontent and indignation against a proposal that disrespects the rights” of public administration workers, arguing that the proposal for 0.3% wage increases after ten years is “unacceptable”. without remuneration update.
The secretary general of CGTP also said that the inter-union “will not fail to be in any meeting where the problems of workers are discussed”, recalling that the Government convened the union structures of the civil service for February 10, four days after the vote of the State’s budget.
However, he warned that “after what happened this Friday, if the Government does not listen, then it will be held responsible for the continuation of the struggle”.
Also Ana Avoila, coordinator of the Common Front of Public Administration Unions, a CGTP structure that called for the national demonstration, told Lusa to hope that the prime minister “will be able to perceive the feeling of the workers and that he will stop saying that there is no money”.
According to the union leader, “tens of thousands of workers were on the street this Friday and thousands joined the strike and closed the services, which is a demonstration of the indignation that is raging in the public administration services”.
“If on the 10th the minister has nothing significant to propose, of course, other forms of struggle will be announced right there,” said Ana Avoia.
Also the secretary general of the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), Mário Nogueira, who was present on the stage alongside the CGTP leaders, criticized the negotiation calendar defined by the Government, with a meeting scheduled after the Budget approval date. of the State for 2020.
“It is unacceptable, and even sui generis, that a government schedule negotiations on a matter that is closed in the State Budget. […] What the Government is doing is simulating a negotiation that it will do when there is nothing left to negotiate ”, he said.
For Mário Nogueira, the stance of the Minister of Education, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, who admits to leaving for later the negotiation of aspects that the teachers’ unions regard as priorities – such as retirement, the lack of teachers, among others – reveals that for the minister these issues are “dead ends”.
“What is curious is that when we tried to understand what ideas the ministry had for teachers over 60 years old to have other activities and what incentives to attract teachers to areas where there are difficulties in placing them, the minister just said that the legislature is four years old and so we have time to talk about it. Let’s see if the minister has a four-year term in this legislature ”, said the secretary general of Fenprof.
In one of the front lines to listen to the speeches of Arménio Carlos and Ana Avoila, the administrative assistant Paulo Oliveira, from the Centro Hospitalar de Entre Douro e Vouga, told Lusa that “the Government’s low wages policy” justified his presence there , criticizing that workers beginning their careers and with decades of service earn the same.
“With this policy, one day the State will want to have workers for the public administration and it does not,” he said, adding that nowadays no one looks at a job in the State as “a privilege” vis-à-vis the private sector, especially in careers with lower wages.
Carina Almeida, an operational assistant at a school in Aveiro, regretted that the progress she made when public service careers were thawed had already been absorbed, in practical terms, by the increase in the national minimum wage, considering that “the state is very ungrateful” of stagnation in which it finds itself.
The 90 euros increase demanded by the unions, which, he stressed, does not even represent an increase of 10 euros each year without salary updates, “are nothing” for workers, taking into account that they are diluted in inflation.
Maria Ribeiro, a civil servant for 22 years, came from Porto to represent the non-teaching staff of the schools in the protest. The salary increase was the main demand that brought her to Lisbon.
“The minimum wage has already caught me”, he lamented to Lusa, clarifying that he currently receives seven cents more than the national minimum, which is 635 euros.
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