The functioning of schools, hospitals or garbage collection was disrupted Friday in Portugal by a day of national strike by civil servants who demand increases in wages and an improvement in purchasing power.
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Civil servants "are
preparing to enter their thirteenth year without salary increases
," Sebastiao Santana, coordinator of the Common Front of Public Administration Unions, told local media.
The salary updates based on inflation have not made it possible to "
recover the lost purchasing power
", he added.
The strike movement, which began on the night of Thursday to Friday, affected hospitals and garbage collection services especially in the Lisbon region in the early hours of the day, according to the unions.
This strike takes place against the backdrop of a political crisis after the rejection of the finance law for 2022 by the socialist government of Antonio Costa, dropped by his former allies of the radical left.
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The Portuguese will be called to the polls on January 30, 2022 for early legislative elections.
"
We must send a clear signal before the next state budget
," said the union official, estimating that "
even without a state budget for 2022, there is a set of subjects that can be dealt with now
" because they depend on of the budget currently in force.