Portugal crippled by mass strike

national | miscellaneous | news report Friday November 15, 2002 17:06 by Ireland needs a General Strike against Mc Creevy's budget

The public sector strike is the first one in 10 years

Hundreds of thousands of public sector workers in Portugal have staged their first general strike for 10 years in protest at the government's labour reforms and economic austerity programme. Centre-right Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, in office since April, says there is "no serious alternative" to his programme of lay-offs, cost cuts and more flexible labour laws.

Durao Barroso says the reforms are inevitable

Mr Durao Barroso has vowed to trim public spending as Portugal tries to close a budget deficit that breached a European Union limit last year.

Strike leaders say that about 80% of workers employed by the government took part in the strike, but the government put the figure at less than 30%.

Transport and health services as well as refuse collection services were severely disrupted.

Many public offices and courts were closed, while most schools were reported to have cancelled classes.

The strike call, which came late last month, was made jointly by the two country's two main labour federations - the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP) and the General Workers Union (UGT).

Heavy burden

With 700,000 employees - or 15% of the workforce - the public sector soaks up a large part of the country's expenditures.

The government says that the new legislation which the workers are objecting to is designed to modernise labour relations, improve productivity and attract more foreign investment.

"This is good for the country, good for Portuguese workers and good for their families," Mr Durao Barroso said.

The new law proposes more flexible working hours, more short-term contracts, experimental employment periods, mid-contract changes to job descriptions, and broadens justifications for firing workers, among other measures.

The workers say the new law seeks to reverse gains in workers' rights obtained in reforms which followed years of dictatorship in 1974.