“The Management of the Algarve Regional Organization of the PCP salutes the Algarve workers and their trade unions, for holding a great and combative day of struggle for the 1st of May, in Faro”, states the PCP Algarve in a press release.
A few days after the fiftieth anniversary of the April Revolution, Algarve workers responded by attending a great day of struggle held around the May 1st celebrations, called by the União de Sindicatos do Algarve/CGTP-IN.
In a demonstration that ran through the streets of the city of Faro, the workers “brought the demand for increased wages and reforms as their main demand, at a time when social inequality is accentuated as the distribution of the wealth created is increasingly unfair and felt in the region. For large economic groups, for employers it is millions, for workers it is exploitation and low wages”.
Other demands such as the defense of rights, the end of precariousness, urgent changes to labor legislation, regulation of working hours and fixing the working day at 35 hours, the right to freedom of association, as well as better public services – health, education, social security, the resolution of housing problems, peace in the world and the end of war were issues brought up by the slogans and many banners held at the demonstration.
The PCP highlights the “solidarity presence of retired people, the women’s and peace association movement, the popular housing movement, many popular people, and with a lot of visibility and enthusiasm, young people, affirming April and demanding the future with rights, linked to the Values of April.
A demonstration that, just like the popular celebrations of the 25th of April, shows the roots of this day among workers and the popular masses, which as a celebration of Labor Day, is above all a day of action, struggle and affirmation of workers’ demands and their demands”.
For PCP’s DORAL, this “great day of struggle reveals the dissatisfaction that workers feel, which is why they demand better working and living conditions, and that, as stated in the final interventions, that it is urgent, fair, possible and necessary to resolution of the current situation. The PSD/CDS government, the employers, was informed of the availability and strength to continue the fight”.
