Santana Lopes says that being unionist of the UGT “must be harder”

O president of the Chamber of Figueira da Foz today considered that “it must be much more difficult” to be unionist of the UGT than to belong to a trade union center that “is always against”, in an indirect allusion to CGTP.

In an intervention at the opening of the 15th Congress of the General Workers Union (UGT), which takes place at Figueira da Foz, Pedro Santana Lopes began by recalling the names of the trade union center, such as José Manuel Torres Couto, João Proença, Rui Oliveira and Costa, José Veludo and António Cabecinha, whose route he said admire.

“ I cannot fail to say and pay tribute to those who are unionists of the UGT, even because, without a doubt, it must be much more difficult. It should be easier to belong to a central trade union that is already known that it is always against, than to belong to a central trade union, whose militants, also ideologically, are aligned with parties that alternate, or have alternated, in power ", he said, without making direct reference to CGTP.

For the social democrat and mayor, it is a reason for “respect” who recognizes himself in government measures and knows “to be in battle trenches”.

“ Having this dismay, that courage, that boldness, that freedom of spirit to recognize some measures that are taken, but at the same time knowing to be in the trenches of battle when it is necessary, of course, that it is a reason for respect, consideration and admiration”, he added.

Pedro Santana Lopes said that, as mayor, he seeks to “follow this example: sometimes he does not agree, even though he has recently returned to a party where I have militated for many years”, in a reference to the PSD.