Lisbon, June 12, 2022 (Lusa) — The strike by CP reviewers and ticket workers, south of Pombal, closed between 85% to 90% of ticket offices, the Itinerant Commercial Review Rail Union (SFRCI) told Lusa .
“This strike covered workers south of Pombal. We have an idea that about 85% to 90% of ticket offices are closed today”, said SFRCI leader Luís Bravo, speaking to Lusa.
The stoppage, which began to take effect late Saturday afternoon, is thus having a “very wide membership” of review workers, ticket offices and direct managers, defended the union structure, adding that this reflects “workers’ discontent”. in the face of the wage freeze and the blocking of negotiations.
Luís Bravo also said that, so far, the workers have not received any response from CP — Comboios de Portugal, stressing that a third of the company’s workers have been forgotten by the Administration and the tutelage.
“The company was in the process of merging, between EMEF [Empresa de Manutenção de Equipamento Ferroviário] and the CP. [Os membros] of this Administration are almost all from the CP (workshops) which greatly conditioned the ongoing negotiations, forgetting the workers in the commercial area and the inspection of trains”, he added.
On Thursday, Luís Bravo regretted that the sector has not yet received the 0.9% update, approved for the public service, which he classified as “miserable”, representing between about five and nine euros, depending on the level.
According to the union, for this, the CP Administration “imposes” the subscription of a new company agreement, “with worse working conditions”.
“Transport workers, assigned to trains and ticket offices, who start their shift at five, six or seven in the morning and leave after midnight, have to travel in their own vehicles and, with the increase in fuel , at the moment, about 20% of their salary is already going to go to work”, he pointed out.
Added to this are work shifts and rotating days off and a “brutal increase in the cost of living”, factors that have led even younger workers to resign from the company.
A 24-hour strike is also scheduled for June 23 for operational railway workers, north of Pombal.
CP has already warned that the movement of the company’s trains should have “significant disruptions on June 12, 13 and 16 due to the strike.
The company said that customers who have already purchased a ticket to travel on Alfa Pendular, Intercidades, Interregional and Regional trains will be allowed a refund of the total value of the ticket purchased, or its revalidation, free of charge.
Since the beginning of the month, there has been a strike by CP workers for overtime and on holidays, which lasts until the end of the month, but it did not cause any suppression, an official company source told Lusa on June 3.
On May 16, CP announced that it had reached an agreement with 12 unions to review the Company Agreement, leaving out three union structures.
The agreement reached resulted in a salary increase of 0.9%, with retroactive effect on January 1, 2022, the standardization of the meal allowance to 7.74 euros and the integration of former EMEF workers into the CP salary scale, with retroactive effect to the first day of the year.
PE (AAT/DD) // MSF
Lusa/End
