“We are here almost 12 hours a day, with no time for our personal lives”: commercial workers on strike

Workers in commerce and large supermarkets are on strike this Wednesday. They demand wage increases and better working conditions, a collective employment contract and store closures on Sundays and holidays.

The strike is registering “excellent participation”, according to a union source, which points to partial closures of stores and total closures of some services, especially in large food distribution.

At the top of the demands of workers in commerce and services are salary increases. Additionally, the union denounces “enormous pressure towards the deregulation of working hours” in the sector, “due to the imposition of time bank regimes, in which workers, who already have completely deregulated working hours, would only know the arrival time, never knowing what time they would leave”.

The union demands a reduction in working hours to 35 hours a week, the closure of commercial establishments on Sundays and holidays and the limitation of opening hours, so that these units cannot be open beyond 10pm.

In addition to Cesp, the Service Sector Workers Union (Sitese) also issued a strike notice for this Wednesday.