Sines, Setubal, Portugal, June 6, 2025 (Lusa) - The partial strike at the Sines port in southern Portugal by port concessionaire PSA Sines and LaborSines workers at Terminal XXI, which ends on Friday, had “mass support” and was “one of the largest ever” at that terminal in the Alentejo region port, according to a union source.
The strike, which began on May 26 and lasted for 12 days, was called by the Portuguese Union of Industry, Energy, Services and Water (SIEAP) and covered the last two hours of each shift.
“We take a very positive view. It is perhaps one of the biggest strikes ever here at PSA,” said SIEAP leader Cláudio Santiago, speaking to the Lusa news agency.
The union leader said he did not have data to specify the exact number of workers who joined the strike, but gave an example to illustrate its impact: “On average, out of 12 cranes, only one or two were working, which shows the mass support for this strike.”
It was a strike with “a very important spirit” in the search for “solutions” to the workers’ demands, and was “the last resort” found by the union to alert to the need to “negotiate an agreement that values workers”.
The year "2024 was the best ever for this port and what we are seeing is a rollback of these workers’ rights. No one understands, the Portuguese do not understand how these rights can be rolled back," he said.
In a statement sent today to Lusa, PSA Sines, the concessionaire of Terminal XXI at the Port of Sines, said it “vehemently rejects the accusations” made against it by the union.
“We vehemently reject the accusations that our company has misled workers or refused to enter into negotiations,” the statement said.
The SIEAP leader indicated that the rights in question relate to “working hours and the reconciliation of professional and family life”.
The union presented “a varied set of proposals”, but “the company says it cannot agree to anything”, it argued, giving as an example the right to take the day off on one’s birthday, which the management says it “cannot accommodate”.
According to Cláudio Santiago, “the workers voted overwhelmingly against the change in working hours that was imposed unilaterally, breaking an agreement that had been in place since 2019”.
“An agreement that had been signed on career progression and integration and on the improvement of these workers’ salaries was not renegotiated,” he criticised, adding that the issue of working hours “is central to the lives” of workers and “has no impact on the company”.
In the statement sent to Lusa, PSA Sines assured that it has given “priority to transparency” in its communications and that it remains open “to constructive dialogue, in an orderly and undisturbed manner” with the workers.
The company clarified that, in terms of salary increases and other compensation, in January of each year, it updates the base salary in accordance with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published by the National Statistics Institute.
Salary increases are also applied in April each year, based on previously agreed progression schemes, benefiting workers, “in the last three years”, with “an average salary increase” that “significantly exceeds national trends”, it stressed.
Despite ensuring full compliance with the legal requirements for the implementation of shift work, PSA Sines acknowledged that, "compared to the winter period, there is a higher workload in the summer period of the duty roster".
However, "the impact is limited to four months, of which three weeks correspond to the planned holiday period", it said.
“It should also be noted that the average number of working hours” during these periods “is in full compliance with the Company Agreement,” the statement said.
HYN/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
