Lisbon, May 13, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's National Union of Drivers and Other Workers (SNMOT) on Tuesday announced a partial strike at Lisbon bus and tram operator Carris, to take place between 2 and 6 June, and a 24-hour strike on 12 June, in protest at the impasse reached in negotiations with the company.
In a statement, the union said it would call a strike at Carris between 2 and 6 June, that is, Monday to Friday, for two hours at the beginning and end of each service, and for 24 hours on 12 June.
The union explained that the agreement on wage updates would not mean the end of the negotiation process and that, together with the company, it would set up "working groups with a view, in particular, to reducing working hours in stages to 35 hours a week."
According to SNMOT, it had already managed to reduce working hours to around 37 hours and 30 minutes a week, "a fact that was only assumed by all those involved in this process some time later" and the first meeting of the working group set up to reduce working hours to 35 hours a week took place on 30 April.
However, following a request from the union to provide data so that it could present "the most reliable proposals possible and achievable by the company," Carris failed to do so.
"Unlike others, SNMOT does not intend to wait for the company's proposals and then criticise or reject them" but rather “intends to do” what “it has already done with the reduction in effective working hours from 40 hours to 37 hours and 30 minutes,” the note states, assuring that “it will continue to be a proactive union and not a passive or reactive one.”
The union pointed out that the company is aware of the result of the previous plenary session held in Miraflores, in Oeiras municipality, in which the workers mandated SNMOT to "call a strike for the festive period in the city of Lisbon (Santo António) if there was no progress" in the process.
Carris, the union added, "seems to ignore all the warnings given by the workers and intends - once again - not to fulfil its own commitments," such as that it would propose a date for the next meeting between 5 and 9 May, which it failed to do without giving "any justification" as it should to demonstrate the "respect that the workers deserve.".
With the scheduling of the strike, in accordance with the notice received, the union argues, this might prompt "the company to start respecting the workers as they deserve [and] not only remember the workers when there are holidays or when something unusual happens."
Carris has been under the management of Lisbon City Council since 2017 and the workers are represented by various trade union structures, such as SNMOT, the Union of Road and Urban Transport Workers of Portugal (STRUP), the Union of Transport Workers (Sitra), the Union of Service Sector Workers (Sitese) and the Trade Union Association of Carris and Subsidiary Workers (ASPTC).
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