Fighting guards threaten to stop the prison system. For now, there is a strike in the EPL

Guards at the Lisbon Prison Establishment go on strike next Thursday. Union threatens new Executive with a total strike if their demands are not heard.

Prison guards threaten to shut down Portuguese prisons with a “strike never seen before” if the Government does not call them in to hear their demands as soon as they take office.

A World FMFrederico Morais, leader of the National Union of the Prison Guard Corps (SNCGP) revealed that the revolt of these professionals increased with the promotion of 1,850 soldiers from the National Republican Guard (GNR).

“We don’t understand how the same Government that is unable to promote us because it is in management promotes our colleagues from the GNR”, he highlighted.

In this way, prison guards will give “a week, maximum 10 days” to the new Executive to call them in order to “solve the problems”. If not, the same person assured, the prison system will be stopped “as it has never been stopped”.

One of the sector’s main demands is an increase in wages. According to the SNCGP, prison guards earn “around 100 euros more than the minimum wage”, which makes the profession unattractive.

According to Frederico Morais, there are currently 3,885 prison guards in Portugal, when almost 5,000 would be needed, which means that more than 50% of prison establishments have less than 3 guards on duty at night.

Against the closure of the Lisbon Prison Establishment

Next Thursday, even without the new Government having taken office, the guards at the Lisbon Prison Establishment (EPL) begin a strike on the premises, which will last until April, in protest against the decision, by the previous Executive, to close this prison until 2026 and distribute the inmates to other prisons in the Lisbon metropolitan area.

To Lusa, the same union leader who spoke to World FMaccused the Minister of Justice, Catarina Sarmento e Castro, of making this decision without considering “the safety of the populations where the inmates will be placed, nor the guards or inmates”.

11 guards attacked since January

This Monday, it was also known that a prison guard was attacked by an inmate in Coimbra prison with punches to the head, after having been involved, hours before, in a “skirmish” with another “comrade”.

According to the SNCGP, 11 attacks on prison guards have been recorded since January this year, which only accentuates the “lack of security in Portuguese prisons”. In view of this, the union also demands that “more serious measures be taken” in these cases, that is, “the amendment of the Code of Criminal Procedure”, to protect prison guards, “who represent the Portuguese State”.