The infrastructure minister said this Thursday that the settlement of CP’s historic debt is “determined to return normalcy” to the company and said he believed “social peace” between management and unions is not in danger .
“CP is a solid company, with a future, with indicators that we are not yet satisfied with, but they are on the road to recovery and we want to consolidate this path, but one of the fundamental elements of this process of restructuring, modernization and consolidation of CP is clearing historical debts,” said Infrastructure Minister João Galamba.
On the sidelines of a visit to CP’s Contumil workshops, in Porto, João Galamba said that resolving CP’s debt will allow the company “to function normally”, but also “to enter at high speed “.
“We are actively working with the Ministry of Finance to solve this problem, it is a measure that is included in the state budget for 2023 and will be implemented before the end of the year”he added.
Emphasizing that this is “a difficult road” that has not been traveled overnight, the minister said he understood the dissatisfaction of many Portuguese with the quality of the service provided by the company, but appealed to them to understand that the government and administration are making efforts.
“We also ask that you understand that we are doing our best,” he said, but acknowledged that CP “did not provide good service to the Portuguese in the first six months”. this year.
“Now more important than highlighting the difficulty of the first few months, I would like to congratulate CP for having managed to reach an agreement with all unions in a difficult climate,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of new strikes, the minister assured that “this difficult period is over”.
“At the moment we have no reason, nor data, that would lead us to suspect that social peace could be endangered,” he noted, adding that both the CP administration and the government are available to negotiate with the unions, but “with an above all the sustainability and viability of CP as a public transport company”.
Source: DN
