Setúbal, Portugal, May 9, 2025 (Lusa) - The secretary-general of Communist-backed CGTP/IN trade union confederation, Tiago Oliveira, said in Setúbal on Friday that the prime minister's statements on the CP strike constitute "an attack by the government on the right to strike and on the achievements of April".
"We are well aware of the past of the PSD and the CDS. We know their policies well, who they answer to and where they are heading. And the path being traced by the government is in the prime minister's words: it is an attack on the right to strike, an attack on an achievement of April, an attack on workers' rights," he said.
Tiago Oliveira spoke to the Lusa news agency during a gathering of striking workers at the Setúbal industrial unit of Autoneum, a Swiss company in the automotive sector. This follows statements made on Thursday by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro on the strike law due to the railway workers' strike.
The president of the PSD and prime minister, Luís Montenegro, had said on Thursday that there were "political, partisan and electoral influences" that prevented the CP strike from being avoided and that it may be necessary to change the law to balance the right to strike with other rights.
Regarding the situation at Autoneum, Tiago Oliveira considered that the company, "in addition to falling short of the workers" specific objectives in terms of wages, which are the workers" central demands, is discriminating against workers in wage increases, offering X to some and Y to others".
"We cannot accept this. We defend that all workers should be treated equally," explained the CGTP/IN leader.
According to union leader Esmeralda Marques, from SiteSul, the Union of Workers in the Manufacturing, Energy and Environmental Activities of the South, which called the strike at Autoneum, the workers, the vast majority of whom are women, "demand wage increases above the 3.8% that have already been applied unilaterally by the company and an end to wage discrimination".
"The company has already applied, without the agreement of the workers, a wage increase of 3.8% across the board, and then in some categories it has gone ahead with a minimum of €45 for categories directly linked to production," she said.
"The workers do not agree, they consider that there is discrimination between workers because the company does not give the same increase to everyone, and the amount [of the wage increases] is significantly low and does not even keep pace with the evolution of the national minimum wage," Esmeralda Marques stressed.
The gathering of Autoneum workers, which took place between 9:30 and 11:30 a.m., was also attended by Paula Santos, the communist MP elected for Setúbal, who rejected the idea that she was exploiting the strike at Autoneum for political gain during the election campaign.
"We came here to express our solidarity, as we have done on several occasions. It would not make sense for us not to be here today, because we have been involved in many other workers' struggles, here in the district of Setúbal and across the country," explained the communist MP and CDU's lead candidate for the Setúbal constituency in the upcoming legislative elections.
GR/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
