Lisbon, Dec. 5, 2024 (Lusa) - The minister for the presidency on Thursday described the train drivers" strike scheduled for this Friday as “unprecedented”, arguing that it was a protest against something that didn"t happen.
"[...] At no time, and this has been clarified several times by me and by the minister for infrastructures, does the government establish or establish causalities," said the minister for the presidency, António Leitão Amaro, in response to journalists at the end of the cabinet meeting in Lisbon.
The National Union of Portuguese Railway Train Drivers (SMAQ) has called a general strike for 6 December. The government has failed to clarify the relationship between rail accidents and the alcohol content of these workers and to demand adequate safety conditions.
At issue are the statements made by the minister for the presidency, António Leitão Amaro, at a press conference after a cabinet meeting, in which he said that "it"s not widely known, but Portugal has the second worst performance in terms of the number of accidents that occur per kilometre of railway" and that it has "a performance around seven times worse than the first half of European countries", explaining that the government has approved a draft law that reinforces "the administrative offence measures for train drivers, creating a ban on driving under the influence of alcohol".
António Leitão Amaro today quoted a communication from the union to his office, in which the SMAQ recognises that the minister of the presidency "did not make such a statement directly".
The minister thus described it as "strange and unprecedented’ for a strike to take place against something that didn"t happen.
"If it hasn"t happened, I think that the people who may be out of work tomorrow are going to ask themselves what sense it makes for them to suffer by organising a strike against something that hasn"t happened,’ he insisted.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing (MIH) announced that it is proceeding with various measures to reinforce railway safety, which it says will respond to the demands of train drivers.
In the note, the minister of infrastructure and housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, "regrets the SMAQ"s decision to maintain the train drivers" general strike for 6 December 2024, which will harm the movement of trains and consequently on the lives of thousands of citizens who use public transport".
According to the Ministry, the measures include "reinforcing the use of the ATP (Automatic Train Protection) system on vehicles circulating on the National Rail Network’, "reducing the use of Temporary Speed Limits, favouring greater use of the blue periods provided for in the Network Directory’ and "continuously improving the Safety Management Systems of the Infrastructure Manager and railway operators’.
The Ministry will also move forward with the "definition of performance indicators to monitor the progress and effectiveness of the measures’ and with the "reinforcement of safety conditions regarding the signalling and protection of Temporary Speed Limits, through the revision and clarification of the safety regulations in force’.
PE/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
