Lisbon, Portugal: Widespread disruption hit Portuguese air travel and trains, hospitals and schools Thursday as the unions called the biggest nationwide strike action for more than a decade against government labour reforms.
Lisbon's main train station was empty with most services cancelled and the TAP Air Portugal national airline called off about two thirds of its normal 250 flights.
According to unions, refuse collection was at a standstill along with hospital departments handling non-urgent cases. Schools and courts were also affected.
Unions have been infuriated by a law proposed to simplify firing procedures, extend the length of fixed-term contracts and expand the minimum services required during a strike.
Prime Minister Luis Montenegro insisted that the labour reforms, with more than 100 measures, were intended to "stimulate economic growth and pay better salaries".
CGTP secretary general Tiago Oliveira said the reforms were "among the biggest attacks on the world of work". He told AFP the government action would "normalise job insecurity" and "make dismissals easier".
Support for strikers
Out of a working population of some five million people, around 1.3 million are already in insecure positions, Oliveira said.
With Portugal set to elect a new president in early 2026, Oliveira said he considered the strike was "already a success" even before it started as it had drawn public attention to the labour reforms.
Public opinion is largely behind the action, with 61 percent of those polled in favour of the walk-out, according to a survey published in the Portuguese press.
On the eve of the strike, Montenegro said he hoped "that the country will function as normally as possible... because the rights of some must not infringe on the rights of others".
Although Portugal has recorded economic growth of around two percent and a historically low unemployment rate of some six percent, the prime minister has argued that the country should take advantage of the favourable climate to push through reforms.
Armindo Monteiro, head of the main employers confederation, the CIP, condemned the strike and told AFP the government's draft law was only a "basis for discussion" aiming to correct the "misbalance" caused by labour changes made by a previous government.
