(23 November 2010, Brussels) Tomorrow Portugal will witness a 24 hour General Strike against the Government policies and the impact that those policies have on the workers. The General Strike is a unitarian action of all Portuguese trade unions. The European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) sends a warm message of solidarity to the workers that will be tomorrow on the picket lines from our affiliated unions (SINTAP, STAL and STE). This General strike continues the wave of mobilisations that Europe is experiencing due to the austerity measures in the European Union imposed by national governments as their answer to the economic crisis.
The European Trade union movement has already expressed its anger against the austerity measures, labour market and pension reforms that make the workers in general, and public sector workers in particular, pay for the crisis. Workers that were and are not the cause of the economic crisis should not pay the consequences. Europe’s union movement has formulated alternatives based on fair taxation, fighting tax fraud and corruption, a financial transaction tax and a tax on banks.
Euro-bonds, solidarity mechanisms and above all our demand for stimulus and a green and social deal rather than austerity are ways out of the crisis.
Participants to the EPSU Public Services Network in Sesimbra, Portugal, meeting today 23 November also extend their solidarity message to all Portuguese workers demonstrating and picketing in their fight against cuts and for social justice. You are not alone in this struggle, Hoping for a resounding success of the General Strike, Yours, Carola FIschbach-Pyttel
- Log in to post comments