Lisbon, May 5, 2025 (Lusa) - According to the Arbitration Court's decision, the CP—Comboios de Portugal workers' strike on Wednesday and Thursday will not have minimum services, just like the strike on 28 April, which, according to the union, was fully adhered to.
"The Arbitration Court unanimously decided not to set any minimum services for the "Strike between 00:00 on 7 May and 24:00 on 14 May 2025 and Strike from 00:00 on 07 May to 24:00 on 8 May 2025", reads the decision published on the Economic and Social Council's website, dated 02 May.
However, the services necessary for the safety and maintenance of equipment and facilities, emergency services, rescue trains and all trains that have started their journey must be taken to their destination.
The Arbitration Court states that it considered ordering minimum services for the 7th, 8th and 9th, when the stoppage takes on a greater dimension, even though it understood that there were alternatives to rail transport for the urban lines of Lisbon and Porto, given the great pressure of demand from those populations.
"It turns out, however, that its implementation [...] proved inadvisable because it did not ensure, concerning the percentage that was judged to correspond to the satisfaction of unavoidable social needs without, at the same time, annihilating the fundamental core of the right to strike, the minimum safety standards for users in accessing the railway station platforms and using the trains, according to the information obtained from the company," stressed the panel of arbitrators chaired by Jorge Bacelar Gouveia.
Last week, on the day that an electricity failure affected Portugal and Spain for several hours, a strike by CP ticket inspectors, with no minimum services, led to the total paralysis of traffic until 10:00. This was the last update from the company until the blackout at around 11:30.
Several unions representing CP workers delivered a strike notice to the carrier between 00:00 on 7 May and 24:00 on 8 May, against the imposition of wage increases "that do not restore purchasing power" and for "collective bargaining for decent wage increases".
The workers also want the "implementation of the agreement to restructure the pay scales, in the terms in which it was negotiated and agreed".
The notice was launched by the Trade Union Association of Intermediate Railway Managers (ASCEF), the Independent Trade Union Association of Commercial Railwaymen (ASSIFECO), the Federation of Transport and Communications Trade Unions (FECTRANS), the National Union of Transport, Communications and Public Works (FENTCOP), the National Union of Railway Workers of the Movement and Similar (SINAFE), the National Democratic Railway Union (SINDEFER) and the Independent Union of Railway Workers of Infrastructure and Similar (SINFA).
The National Independent Union of Railway Workers (SINFB), the National Union of Transport and Industry Workers (SINTTI), the Independent Union of Railway and Related Workers (SIOFA), the National Union of Technical Staff (SNAQ), the National Union of Railway Workers (SNTSF), the Railway Transport Union (STF) and the Union of Metro and Railway Workers (STMEFE) also signed.
MPE/ADB // ADB.
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