Division of Firefighters Sapadores criticizes government negotiating proposal

O president of the National Sapador Firefighters Union (SNBS) today criticized the government's negotiating proposal for professionals and admitted the return to street protests.

The proposal presented “improved some things from the previous one”, but “it is very insufficient,” said Ricardo Cunha to firefighters concentrated in Praça do Comércio, in Lisbon, right after the meeting.

Today's meeting at the Ministry of Internal Affairs joined SNBS with the State Secretaries of Civil Protection, Forests, Public Administration and Local Administration.

According to the union, this is the fact that the government “does not want to exceed the autonomy of local authorities”, refusing to require the Chambers to set schedules and strengthen teams.

“They say they can’t legally regulate specific schedules for the municipalities, but we disagree with that and we said that the proposal, in our opinion, was far from what we want, which is to have a guarantee that the municipalities make a schedule and that what they pay us is safe,” said Ricardo Cunha.

“ We said right there [at the meeting] that, in a first analysis, this had no feet to walk and that we could put on the table the chance to return to the protests at national level”, it said.

The Secretaries of State told SNBS that they would meet with the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities to try to raise awareness about the issue of the hours of the firefighters, as well as the strengthening of means.

According to Ricardo Cunha, “the municipalities undertake to open competition and do not open, as is the case of Leiria, who promised that it would open 20 vacancies and until today no one has entered”.

“The problem is that we have irresponsible mayors at national level, who look at firefighters as an expense, and not as an investment for their municipality,” he added.

The absence of overtime is another complaint from the fire department. “In the way that there are currently, there are cameras that understand that they do not have to pay” and others opt for other solutions, which has already led SNBS to present “more than 100 lawsuits against municipalities”.

Ricardo Cunha also criticized the presence of so many police officers in the perimeter of the concentration.

“ It seems that we are troublemakers or that this amount of police is necessary,” said the union leader, who warned the firemen present to risk the protests and said that “the government said that if the protests come back, the negotiation is interrupted.”.

“ It's like there's some negotiation. Everything has been stopped for two years”, answered one of the firefighters present.

Prior to today's meeting, the government met with the Interunion Platform of the Local Administration's Sapber Firefighters, which is not recognized by the elements present in the Terreiro do Paço.

But the platform also criticized the proposal, considering it below what was expected.

In the proposal, the government refers to the Chambers the setting of schedules and some claims on the career of firefighter sapper, depending on the financial capacity and resources of each municipality.

Firefighters have insisted that the rules should be the same for everyone, regardless of the circumstances of each municipality.

On October 1st, sapadores firefighters showed up at the headquarters of the Government in Lisbon, having launched pyrotechnic devices and forced the reinforced presence of the police.

According to the union, what is needed is to regulate what is already in the law regarding the time of the tappers.

In addition, according to the initial proposal, the Government also withdraws rights from these professionals, since those who work shifts have the right to enjoy one weekend a month, but the Government wants this weekend to be enjoyed only every three months.

Next to the fire department was a strong police device with seven light vehicles and five Special Police Unit vans.