Portugal: a railway strike paralyzes the rail network

A view of Porto-São Bento station (Illustration image) © Wikimedia Commons CC BY SA 4.0 Rodrigo Tetsuo Argenton

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Already on strike on December 23, Portuguese railway workers again took a 24-hour strike on Monday December 26, disrupting rail traffic mainly in Lisbon and Porto.

The strike could be renewed on January 1.

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With our correspondent in Lisbon,

Some 500 trains were canceled on Monday during the second day of the strike in Portuguese railways.

That is two out of three trains.

Friday, December 23, for the first day of the strike, traffic was also severely disrupted.

It is a platform of eight unions of rolling and non-rolling personnel, of the CP railway and IP infrastructures of Portugal which called for this movement.

A strike followed by 80% of the workers according to the unions.

Only the compulsory minimum service prevented a total paralysis of the system at a time of intense displacement, due to the popular family reunions of the Portuguese at the time of the holidays.

The unions are demanding an exceptional bonus to compensate for inflation, which has reached 10%.

New notice for January 1

As well as a reassessment of the meal bonus and the end of discrimination between the different categories of workers.

The strike particularly affected the cities of Lisbon and Porto where half of the 10 million inhabitants are concentrated, and surprised many suburbanites.

The union platform has filed a new strike notice for January 1 if no negotiations begin by then.

►Also read: Discontent is rising in Portugal in the face of an increasingly expensive life

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• Portugal

• Transportation

• Employment and Labor

• Unions