UGT announces priorities for the coming years

A wage valuation, strengthening trade unionism and ensuring the sustainability of social security without transforming the debate “a conflict between young and old” are some of the priorities taken by the UGT for the next four years.

This position is assumed in the programmatic resolution that will be discussed and approved at the 15th Congress of the central trade union, which takes place this Saturday and Sunday, at the Center for Arts and Shows of Figueira da Foz.

In the document, which defines the lines of action of the UGT in the most diverse aspects for the next four years (2026-2030), the trade union central signals that the valorization of wages will continue to “constitute a fundamental priority”, arguing that “Portugal needs to continue a sustained trajectory of wage growth, which articulates the evolution of the national minimum wage with the growth of the average wage and with the valorization of the entire wage structure”.

“Only in this way will it be possible to bring Portuguese workers’ incomes closer to European levels, to combat inequalities and to ensure better prospects for life for the new generations,” he said.

The strengthening of collective bargaining, the fight against the “abuse of precarious links”, the commitment to employment policies that foster the training and qualification of workers and ensure that they have “conditions to participate and benefit from economic and technological changes” are other bets of the UGT for this period.

After the last year was marked by several meetings between UGT, business confederations and government in the context of negotiations on the labour review – whose meetings were held mostly outside the Permanent Committee for Social Concertation (CPCS) and whose process led to two general strikes (one of which with the participation of the UGT) and ended with the bill to be rejected in parliament – the trade union central points out that “social dialogue and social consultation will continue to be fundamental instruments” of its intervention.

“ Dialogue is not an end in itself: it must enable concrete results to be achieved, improve living and working conditions and contribute to more balanced economic and social policies,” he argues, adding that it is “available to negotiate and build commitments, but will not accept that social dialogue is reduced to a mere formal consultation process.

In the document, the UGT also undertakes to “strengthen trade unionism close to the workers, open to change and prepared to respond to the challenges of the future”, considering that a trade union central “requires strong unions, dynamic territorial structures, prepared leaders” and union workers.

“ The generational renewal, the participation of young people, the strengthening of the presence of women, the valorization of trade union leaders and managers, the training of structures and the proximity to the workplaces must be of increased importance ", stresses, also committing to "adapting the forms of communication and trade union organization to the new social and technological realities".

The UGT also promises to fight for a housing policy “able to sustainably increase affordable supply” and to defend public social security.

“Financial sustainability and social sustainability cannot be separated: a financially balanced system, but unable to ensure adequate protection, does not fully fulfil its function,” he stresses.

In this sense, it is said to be available to “discuss the changes necessary for the future sustainability of the system”, but warns that “it will reject structural reforms carried out without a rigorous diagnosis, without assessing their economic and social impacts or without a real participation of the social partners”, as well as “any attempt to turn the debate on the sustainability of social security into a conflict between young and old”.