Lisbon, June 12, 2025 (Lusa) - Transport in Portugal's capital city, Lisbon, on what is known as the longest day in the city due to the festivities of Saint Anthony, will be disrupted on Thursday due to a 24 hour strike by public transport operator Carris and a night-time plenary meeting of the Metro.
After a first week of partial stoppages, Carris workers are returning to protest today with a 24 hour strike - covering the entire working period - demanding a reduction in working hours to 35 hours per week, to be implemented in 2025.
For their part, Lisbon Metro workers are going ahead with their general meeting between 9:15 p.m. today and 2:30 a.m. on Friday, even after the trade unions were called on Tuesday, a public holiday, to a meeting with the company’s board of directors.
According to Fectrans - Federation of Transport and Telecommunications Trade Unions, at the meeting the company reformulated its proposal on meal allowances, which will be presented at the plenary meeting.
“After a series of attempts [by the company] to justify why they had not resolved in a timely manner the problems that the LIsbon Metro has been creating for its workers (…) the trade unions replied that the only way this plenary session could be suspended would be through the immediate resolution of all outstanding issues,” reads a union statement.
The unions representing Carris workers (which operates the public bus service in Lisbon, as well as trams and street lifts) have called for a two-hour strike at the beginning and end of each shift between June 2–6 and a 24-hour strike today, with minimum services being decreed by an arbitration court.
In addition to services such as exclusive transport for the disabled and the company’s medical posts being mandatory, routes 703, 708, 717, 726, 735, 736, 738, 751, 755, 758, 760 and 767 must operate “at 50% of their normal service”.
On May 13, the National Union of Drivers and Other Workers (SNMOT) explained that the agreement on salary increases 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 per week”.
According to the union, it had already been possible to reduce actual working hours to around 37 hours and 30 minutes per week, “a fact that was only acknowledged by all those involved in the process some time later”, with the first meeting of the working group set up to reduce actual working hours to 35 hours per week taking place on April 30.
Carris has been under the management of the Lisbon city council since 2017 and the workers are represented by various trade union structures, such as SNMOT, the Road and Urban Transport Workers’ Union (STRUP), Sitra - Transport Workers’ Union, Sitese - Service Sector Workers’ Union and ASPTC - Trade Union Association of Carris and Participated Companies Workers.
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