The communist secretary-general accused the government on Sunday of a “major ideological operation” to prevent a wage increase that would help it absorb the effects of inflation and defended the increase of the minimum wage to 850 euros in January.
At the Portuguese Communist Youth Staff Meeting in Lisbon, Jerónimo de Sousa defended the “general wage increase and the increase of the national minimum wage to 850 euros as early as January 2023”.
“They talk about the value of the minimum wage for 2026, so as not to commit to its significant increase in January. They say they want to increase the average salary, but do not remove the barriers that prevent it, namely the expiry of collective bargaining he criticized.
After hearing several young people talk about the difficulties they currently face in school, in higher education or in the job market, the communist leader spoke in recent days of a “major ideological operation” to try to justify the unjustified.
“The government, together with the big companies, wants us to accept that workers really have to live with another deterioration in living conditions,” said Jerónimo de Sousa.
The PCP secretary general spoke of the “difficulties of young workers who are caught between the lack of a bond on the one hand, living in the permanent uncertainty of tomorrow, whether the contract will be renewed or not, whether the salary is guaranteed or not.” . , and on the other hand, the persistent low wages facing the brutal price increases”.
And he pointed out that “in the face of inflation that will be around 8% by the end of the year, the government and bosses, with the support of the specialist commentary, want to make you believe that it is not possible to increase wages. to above 4.8%”.
On Wednesday, the government proposed to the social partners to achieve an average nominal wage increase of 4.8% per year between 2023 and 2026, in order to guarantee an average cumulative increase in workers’ salaries of 20% over this period.
“Some say that inflation is temporary and therefore no longer felt for the year, pretending not to know that workers have already lost a salary this year with the rise in prices and that without the rise in salaries it will not be. others who companies cannot stand, because of the cost of energy, fuel, raw materials, do everything not to talk about the scandalous profits of major economic groups that grow dizzyingly in times of crisis and difficulties,” he criticized Jerome de Souza.
And he criticized that there is “compensation to employers to raise wages”, questioning whether an employee “eight hours behind a machine, a computer or a steering wheel is no longer enough to justify his salary”.
The PCP’s secretary general also believed that the government’s desire to “retreat all paths of right-wing policy, further compress wages, facilitate exploitation, open space for private healthcare and education companies.” , conditioning or justification of their options with the directives and impositions of the European Union and the euro”.
And he refused “the usual excuses”, referring to the fact that recently it was the covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, but “it was already the crisis of capitalism at the time of the ‘troika’ and so many other justifications “.
“Everything serves to apply the old recipes, to ask us to accept measures to increase exploitation, to degrade public services, to limit democratic freedoms and to concentrate wealth even more in the hands of the few,” he said, stressing that “there is another way”.
Jerónimo de proposes to strengthen the accommodation allowance for all students
The PCP secretary-general proposed this Sunday to strengthen accommodation for higher education students and defended the use of “all public buildings” to increase the supply of beds.
“It is necessary to build more housing and use all public buildings capable of doing so, to speed up the process,” defended Jerónimo de Sousa in an intervention at the cadres of the Portuguese Communist Youth (JCP) meeting. , in Lisbon.
Jerónimo de Sousa also stated that “the PCP will propose the creation of a monitoring committee for the implementation of the plan, which will include universities and colleges, as well as student representatives, in addition to strengthening the housing allowance for all students”, without specifying, however, its value.
The PCP’s secretary general said the party will continue to defend “the end of tuition fees and the strengthening of social action in schools and the funding of public higher education as structural elements of a different policy in higher education”.
On housing, the communist leader pointed out that “there are about 120,000 displaced students”, but “only 15,000 public beds” and, outside housing, the supply “does not exist except at priceless values for families”.
Jerónimo de Sousa believed that “the outrageous prices of rooms, parts of rooms or even pantries that some try to hoard a little more with are not the result of chance, but the result of options to leave the answer to a basic need to the market” and criticized that “this business is only possible because PS, PSD and CDS have for decades not made the investments that we so often demand, together with students, in the construction of missing housing”.
And he believed that “those who today, like the PSD, cry crocodile tears because of the lack of accommodation, should answer for the responsibilities they have in this situation, for the degradation that existing housing has voted against, for the lack of investment in the construction of new ones”.
“But also the PS, which repeatedly announces new beds without introducing them, must also take responsibility for putting the needs of students, the deficit, the debt and the dictates of the European Union and the euro first,” he criticized.
After hearing testimonies from some of the youths present about the difficulties they encountered, the PCP’s secretary general believed that his generation “lived better” than their parents, but that their “daughters and grandchildren live worse”.
Jerónimo de Sousa called on young people to mobilize and fight against “this historic setback”, defending that “Portuguese young people do not have to have the sole perspective of living worse than their parents”.
Pointing out that this is “an important moment” when there are “serious and serious problems”, Jerónimo de Sousa emphasized that young people “cannot be an auxiliary power, they must be protagonists of your own future, of the future of democratic Portugal, of the future and happiness of Portuguese youth”.
Source: DN
