Europe in Turmoil: Tens of Thousands Protest in Portugal

Date: 29 January 2023 - 21:45

News ID: ۱۱۱۹۱۶

LISBON (Dispatches) -- Tens of thousands of public school teachers and other staff marched in Lisbon to demand higher wages and better working conditions, putting further pressure on the Portuguese government as it grapples with a cost of living crisis.
Shouting slogans like “for the banks there are millions, for us there are only pennies,” about 80,000 protesters filled the Portuguese capital, police said.
A year after Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa won a majority in parliament, he is facing a slump in popularity and street protests not just by teachers but by other professionals such as doctors.
The Union of All Education Professionals (STOP) is demanding that the government increases the wages of teachers and school workers by at least 120 euros ($130) a month and speeds up career progression.
The government has not made a counter-proposal specifically for teachers but has said it will increase the monthly salaries of all civil servants who earn up to about 2,600 euros by 52 euros.
Teachers complain that, because of career freezes in the past, they are the lowest-paid senior civil servants, which means their financial situation has worsened after a recent spike in inflation to a 30-year high.
Teachers on the lowest pay scale are paid around 1,100 euros per month and even those in the top band typically earn less than 2,000 euros monthly.
“For years, they (politicians) kept us silent. We need better conditions in terms of salary, it’s unacceptable that we don’t have progression in our careers,” said Isabel Pessoa, 47, a science and biology teacher.
Teachers and other education staff across the country have been taking strike action since early December, closing many schools and leaving students unable to attend classes. The strikes have been organized on an area-by-area basis with successive days of action in each of Portugal’s 18 districts.

The government has criticized STOP for the way it has organized the strikes because, it says, it does not have a pre-set timetable and teachers and staff only refuse to work certain hours on a specific day but are still able to close schools.

Elsewhere in Europe, trade unions are calling for new demonstrations across France from Tuesday and threatening more industrial action into February.

After their tour de force on 19 January – more than two million took to the streets according to the organizers – France’s eight main trade unions have called for “a more massive mobilization on 31 January”.

However, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has stood firm, saying the raising of the retirement age to 64 in France is “no longer negotiable”.

Unions are hoping for a massive popular wave against the proposals of the “unfair reform” and its key measure: the postponement of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 years.

But after their first successful action mid-January, “the bar has been set high,” according to political scientist Dominique Adolfatto, and the unions “can’t afford a slip-up”.

The CGT union remains confident, believing turnout will be larger this coming Tuesday, as polls show public opinion a turning against the reform .

France’s largest CFDT union maintains the French population is “very unfavoable to the project and this opinion is tending to grow” – and for the government to ignore the protests would be a mistake.

This Tuesday, more than 200 rallies have been planned across France.

In Paris, the strike march will end at Invalides – close to the National Assembly – where the examination of the controversial bill will already have begun.

Disruptions are expected on public transport this Tuesday – particularly at the SNCF rail and RATP metro operators – and school closures are also anticipated, with the number of primary school teachers on strike to be known by Monday.