The STRUN (Northern Urban Transport Workers Union) reported that the strike at the STCP (Porto Public Transport Company) began at midnight on Monday, and saw an 85% participation rate. The union also accused the company of exerting pressure on the workers.
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José Silva, the union’s coordinator, said that only 33 of the 370 buses scheduled to operate were in service. He accused the STCP administrator of enforcing excessive minimum services and forcing employees not to join the strike.
However, the STCP administrator Rui Saraiva denied the accusations. He confronted these allegations and assured the Board of Directors that he had never questioned the right to strike. He said that:
What happened is that we have two strikes underway at STCP, one in the last two hours of each shift, which started on November 8, 2023, and this one now that started at midnight and will last until 2 am on the 13th. We have two strikes and two minimum service decrees by the Economic and Social Council (CES). In our understanding, it was the combination of these two decrees that led to us being able to issue a call for compliance with the minimum services.
He added,
Now, STRUN has a different opinion and filed a complaint with CES, which did not give a definitive response. Even so, and being against our opinion, without value judgment, what we did was to apply today’s minimum services decree to today.
Saraiva emphasized that they did not exert any sort of pressure on the protesters. He added that:
This does not mean the Board of Directors tried to pressure the drivers. We did not. We issued a first call that combined the two decrees, which led to STRUN’s complaint. Our concern is not a standoff with the union but rather the public service we provide in the Porto Metropolitan Area, while fully respecting the right to strike. The Board of Directors will never challenge the right to strike.
This is the second strike at STCP in less than a month. The last one was a 26-hour stoppage between midnight on July 22 and 2 AM on July 23. The two strikes were called due to the alleged lack of response from management to a proposal for a salary review.
The protesters asked for a wage revision proposal of at least 8%, as workers deemed the 2% increase in January and 4.7% in April insufficient.
The STCP administration noted that in May, it reached a commitment with four out of the five unions representing its workers for the current year. The administration further said that.
These four unions represent the majority of the company’s workers. The only union that did not sign this agreement was STRUN.
