CP (Comboios de Portugal) announced that it has reached an agreement on the interim salary update with most of the unions, with the exception of the Sindicato Ferroviário da Revisão Comercial Itinerante (SFRCI), the only one that maintained the strike this Wednesday.
In a statement, the carrier said it had reached “an agreement on interim pay valuations with all unions (15), with the exception of the Itinerant Commercial Revision Railway Union (SFRCI)”.
The railway company defended that “this consensus is evidence of CP’s fairness and commitment to valuing all its employees, as well as the work unions do to represent their employees”.
CP recalled that, taking into account this agreement, “two of the three unions that had issued a strike notice for Wednesday called off the strike”, adding that “this responsible attitude is a clear indication of the capacity for dialogue and understanding between CP and union structures, in the interest of all: employees, company and passengers”.
CP regretted that “the SFRCI is the only union that has not reached a consensus with the company”, noting that this “will lead to lower raises for its members compared to employees covered by other company agreements”.
“However, CP remains ready to sign the agreement with the SFRCI, without, however, questioning the fairness of the distribution of the available ceiling,” he concluded.
The CP unions that called for a strike on Wednesday broke up after a meeting with the Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Frederico Francisco, where the SNTSF/Fectrans decided to call off the strike and the SFRCI opted to maintain it.
Speaking to Lusa on Tuesday, José Manuel Oliveira, of the Federation of Transport and Communications Unions (Fectrans), said the organization and the National Union of Railway Workers (SNTSF) decided to call off the strike after meeting with the ruler.
The trade unionist pointed to a “series of guarantees from the Secretary of State” and an agreement with the CP, indicating that they will “continue a negotiation process”.
This agreement translates into an interim increase of 50 euros per month, he indicated.
In turn, Luís Bravo, from the SFRCI, told Lusa that the structure was maintaining the strike, which had already led to the suppression of several trains this Wednesday.
“We were affected by the issue of the removal of the inspectors from the marches, we are going to lose jobs and we are being discriminated against against other workers in the distribution of the additional increase,” he complained.
Referring to the state’s decision to allow a 1% interim increase, Luís Bravo said that with the “urgency of the train drivers’ union agreement”, CP ended up “eating up a large chunk of that budget”, leaving the other workers “many injured”.
“There is this lack of equality that creates incomprehensible inequalities. And it puts our jobs at risk,” he said, pointing out that “the secretary of state has heard the problems, is evaluating the problems,” but has not yet responded.
The union leader said in statements this morning that “at the accountants, strike compliance is 100%, with only minimum services being met. With regard to the counters, the data indicates that 90% are closed across the country”.
Source: DN
