CIVIL PROTECTION – CDS of Braga in solidarity with the volunteer firefighters’ claim for more dignified conditions for operators

Altino Bessa, president of the CDS Council and councilor for Civil Protection in the Braga Chamber, expresses, this Wednesday, his solidarity with the Braga Volunteer Firefighters – Humanitarian and Charitable Association in their demand for “more and better working conditions” for the firemen.

In a statement, Altino Bessa recalls that the League of Portuguese Firefighters presented, in the previous legislature, proposals that “would allow greater quality and stability for volunteer firefighters, namely compliance with the law on the legal regime of employment contracts between humanitarian associations and personnel integrated into the command staff and the active staff that performs paid duties and ensuring that humanitarian firefighters associations on the continent are adequately financed for their purposes.

Now, despite these complaints, which the leader of the Braga centrists considers “not demands, but urgent needs”, the socialist Government “chose to use the ‘veil of ignorance’ and not give importance to the basic needs listed by the League of Portuguese Firefighters ”.

“It is known to everyone, or should be, that Volunteer Firefighters have a preponderant and essential role in the country. Making a kind of reflection at a local level, I must say that the Braga Volunteer Firefighters – Associação Humanitária e Beneficente performs a very relevant work in the safety of the population. When we hear the term ‘Firefighters’ the first idea that comes to mind is firefighting. However, nowadays, being a Volunteer Firefighter goes far beyond fighting flames. For those who are unaware, the Volunteer Fire Department develops a series of broad and even multidisciplinary responses, such as, for example, daily transport of patients and urgent victims; transporting patients to consultations, hemodialysis and functional recovery”, he says.

ALERT

Altino Bessa, also a councilor responsible for Civil Protection, states that the municipality has carried out “very solid” work in partnership with the ‘Volunteers’. As Councilor for Civil Protection, I can say that the population of Braga can be proud of the exemplary and tireless work carried out by the entire team of firefighters.”

He says that the corporation, “now, with “a new barracks and with the support of the municipality, will have better logistical conditions”. But he warns: “However, much more is expected. And this ‘much more’ must be leveraged by the Central Government. For more than seventeen years, the Portuguese Firefighters League has expressed the needs listed. They have already waited too long for rights that, in our view, are basic and fundamental to guarantee the human stability of the institution”.

Bessa assures that the party “will always be at the forefront in supporting Volunteer Firefighters because this is a cause for all of us”.

“We expect satisfactory responses in the near future. Answers that meet the real needs of this noble structure”, he concludes.