CGTP either wages in the Azores rising by 15% or at least EUR 150

“ Os Azores are characterized by a huge poverty among those who work and also by a very significant inequality in the distribution of wealth that is produced by workers. The costs of insularity are much higher today when compared to the reality of the Region when the Regional Accrual was created to the National Minimum Salary and Complementary Remuneration”, said CGTP/Açores coordinator Rui Teixeira.

The union leader spoke at a press conference in Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, having warned that “it was more than time” to update those mechanisms to values that correspond to the current reality of the Region.

In particular, CGTP/IN-Açores advocates an increase of 15% in all wages or at least 150 euros, in addition to the update of the Regional Increase to the National Minimum Salary from 5% to 10% and the Supplementary Remuneration to 100 euros.

In the private sector, the trade union structure also advocates significant increases in wages and criticizes the state of collective procurement in the region.

Rui Teixeira considered that this has not presented “quality” that would be necessary in the face of the evolution of wealth and productivity, also pointing responsibilities to the Regional Government (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM) and political power in general.

“ The purchasing power of all workers in the Azores has been shrinking over the last few years and more and more significantly in recent times”, said Rui Teixeira.

For CGTP, wage valuation “is essential to break a poverty cycle of a significant number of workers in the Azores” and to “guarantee the replacement of purchasing power that has been lost over recent years”.

“ These increases we are talking about do not even guarantee the total replacement we had a decade ago. It would only be the elimination of some of the losses of purchasing power in recent years,” said CGTP coordinator in the Azores.

The CGTP-IN/Azores also advocates the valorisation of careers and professions, both in the public and private sectors, claiming that the measures adopted by the regional political power have been “very timid” and “clearly insufficient” in the face of “the degradation of living conditions”, in particular due to the increased costs of first-need goods, food, energy and housing.

“The Azores cannot continue to be known for the growing difficulties among those who work, while watching the brutal accumulation of wealth in a minority, which accumulates privileges,” Rui Teixeira warned.

The trade union leader maintained that “without a general and significant increase in wages” it would be more difficult to fix young people in the region, especially the most qualified, to capture skilled labour, to increase the purchasing capacity of workers and to boost the economy through the internal market and the productive sectors.

As for the petition, CGTP-IN/Azores has not yet defined the date on which it intends to deliver it to the Regional Legislative Assembly, nor has it set a concrete goal for the number of signatures.

The goal is to collect “the maximum number” of signatures in order to ensure that the initiative is discussed by political power with “seriousness,” Rui Teixeira said.

In their view, companies are able to carry out the wage increases claimed, pointing to the urgent need to “break structural injustice in wages”.