Metro Workers South Transport mark strike in November

Othe workers of Metro Transporto do Sul today marked a “total strike” for 16, 17 and 18 November, demanding a salary update and better working conditions, according to the union of drivers.

In the strike notice delivered today, the workers also advance with a strike at the last two hours of each period of work on November 19 and 23, Lusa told the president of the National Union of Maquinists of the Portuguese Railways (SMAQ).

This strike in the company serving the municipalities of Almada and Seixal, in the district of Setúbal, is marked days after another “total strike” on October 20 and 21 and the last two hours of the period of work between October 22 and 27 that, according to the union, had levels of membership in the order of 100%.

According to the National Union of Maquinists of the Portuguese Railways, the October strikes were called due to the lack of concrete results in the negotiations of a new Company Agreement.

The decision was made by the workers in a plenary, “after about two and a half years of negotiations without it having been possible to reach an understanding that meets their demands,” the union explained at the time.

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”.

On the other hand, the board of directors of Metro Transportes do Sul (MTS) also mentioned in a statement sent to the Lusa agency about the October strike, which was surprised by this strike notice, considering it “unproportional in a permanent negotiating framework and in a context of full availability for dialogue and implementation of effective improvements that have been guaranteed in the working conditions of MTS workers, in particular the Driving Operators”.

“ Through a permanent dialogue between the management of MTS and workers’ representatives, it has always been possible to reach an agreement between the parties, in particular with regard to the working conditions offered and the wage updates that have been between 7.7% and 12.8% in the last four years, well above the inflation rate,” the board of directors of the company said.

MTS also states that “it has always been available to dialogue and negotiate with workers’ representatives, including with the SMAQ”, considering that it unilaterally suspended the continuity of the ongoing negotiations at the last meeting on 17 September.

At the time, the president of the SMAQ said that there has been no effective willingness to negotiate, advancing that during the negotiation period only the union presented a document for it.

Today, the trade unionist told Lusa that during and after the October strike, there was no contact either from the administration or from the government despite the workers' call for mediation between the 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).