Metro workers South Transport evaluate new forms of struggle

Othe workers of Metro Transporto do Sul are evaluating the marking of new forms of struggle after seven days of strike without responses from the company or the government, announced today the National Union of Maquinists.

The workers of Metro Transporto do Sul carried out a total strike on 20 and 21 October and from 22 to 27 the stoppage took place at the “two last hours of the work periods started in these days”.

In statements to the agency Lusa, the president of the National Union of Maquinists of Portuguese Railways (SMAQ) said that the strike registered “a great adherence which shows the discontent of the workers”, and is now evaluating new forms of struggle.

“ We make a positive assessment with massive adhesion by the workers, with only the movement of minimum services on total strike days and, in the remaining days, adherence to the partial strike was also mass ", said António Barata Domingues.

During these days, the trade unionist has advanced, there has been no contact either by the company or by the government for an agreement with the workers, so “new forms of struggle are already being thought”.

In a note sent to the agency Lusa on the eve of the strike, the board of directors of the company, which serves the municipalities of Almada and Seixal, in the district of Setúbal, considered the stoppage “unproportional in a permanent opening framework and in a context of full availability for dialogue and implementation of effective improvements that have been guaranteed in the working conditions of the workers of Metro Transporto do Sul, in particular the Driving Operators”.

The National Union of Maquinists of the Portuguese Railways (SMAQ) said that the strike was called following the absence of concrete results in the negotiations for a new Business Agreement, and the decision was taken by the workers gathered in plenary “after about two and a half years of negotiations without it having been possible to reach an understanding that meets their demands”.

According to the trade union structure, “there is a need to improve working conditions, to ensure a wage update that takes account of the loss of purchasing power and to ensure that matters relating to the organization of work are the subject of collective bargaining rather than unilateral decisions of the company”.

The president of the SMAQ told Lusa that workers ask for concrete proposals for negotiation and “not the application of non-negotiated rules” and called on the government to mediate between the two parties.

The Metro Sul do Tejo, a public transport system provided by the so-called light surface meter in the municipalities of Almada and Seixal, in the district of Setúbal, is operated by Metro Transportes do Sul (MTS).