Marinha Grande, Portugal, March 27, 2025 (Lusa) - The strike in Portugal's glass manufacturing sector is to continue next week, now at BA Glass Group companies, the coordinator of the Portuguese Federation of Construction, Ceramics and Glass Trade Unions (FEVICCOM) told Lusa on Thursday.
"We're going to continue in the container glass sector with new strikes next week," said Fátima Messias. "These will be in three factories of the largest company in the packaging glass sector in our country, BA Glass."
BA Glass has plants in Marinha Grande, in the district of Leiria, Avintes, in Porto district, and Venda Nova, in Lisbon district. According to FEVICCOM, it employs more than a thousand workers.
The strike is to run from Tuesday 1 April to 3 April, the coordinator explained, noting that the group has had "even more difficulties because they refuse to negotiate, pure and simple."
The strike in the sector began on Tuesday in Marinha Grande at three Vidrala Group companies (Santos Barosa, Gallo Vidro and Vidrala Logistics), to "demand decent pay rises and improved working conditions," in the union's words and, according to Fátima Messias, has seen a "high level of support from the workers" called out.
"It started at Santos Barosa, which ended at dawn today, with practically total adherence since the start of the strike," she said. "It continued at Gallo Vidro, also with one percent participation and a stoppage of production, and this morning it began at the third of the companies, Vidrala Logistics, also with great participation."
The trade unionist emphasised that "the workers’ reasons have been clearly demonstrated in this struggle, which hasn't been done for several years and has never been done like this simultaneously in these companies.
"The workers are really demanding a bigger, decent pay rise that reflects the increase in the cost of living that we've been experiencing and also better working conditions, because working shifts and, in particular, continuous work means that a good part of our lives is spent inside the factories, night, day, weekends, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays," she emphasised.
Noting that it is "very hard to work like this," the union coordinator maintained that, "for this reason, the workers are demanding... that their work be properly valued and respect for the effort they make."
Messias also accused two Vidrala Group companies "of trying to lure workers into not joining the strike even before it started," by sending statements "to pressure them into carrying out tasks that are up to the picket line to decide, which have to do with the safety of equipment and facilities."
Explaining that the number of employees who received the statements has yet to be ascertained, Messias said that this was "illegitimate pressure, in violation of the strike law and the right to strike."
On the other hand, according to the FEVICCOM official, in one of the factories there were "technical procedures on the part of those responsible [that] could have led to serious damage."
"These were technical procedures that the workers who were on strike to ensure the safety of the equipment and facilities did not agree with," she said, adding that the fire brigade had to intervene because “the water temperature was too high.”
With regard to the first situation, there was an "inspection visit by the Authority for Working Conditions" and, with regard to the second, the union is going to assess the action to be taken.
The FEVICCOM coordinator said that what is required now is for "the companies to return to the negotiating table and draw the appropriate conclusions from this demonstration of protest.
"It's wages, it's working conditions," she reiterated. "The companies must return to the negotiating table and we will propose dates for this meeting to take place. Depending on the position of the companies, new forms of struggle will be decided."
SR/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
