Leaders of the Common Front of Public Administration Unions (Frente Comum) and the National Federation of Teachers (FENPROF) have welcomed the large turnout for last Friday’s public sector general strike in Portugal.
Outside the António Arroio Artistic School in Lisbon, which was closed due to the strike, coordinator of Frente Comum, Sebastião Santana, accompanied by one of FENPROF’s general secretaries, José Feliciano Costa, said that the rubbish collection sector had seen a solid strike in the early hours of the morning .
Santana said: ‘This strike started on the night shift yesterday (Thursday) in hospitals and in waste collection. The overwhelming majority of hospitals had minimum services, from Tondela to Faro, including the largest urban centres.
‘Schools are closed all over the country and others that we know in advance won’t open at all, and this is going to multiply across public administration services.
‘It’s 8.00am, the schools would be opening now, but we’re already aware of what’s happening all over the country, and I’m still receiving messages. We have schools closed in Viseu, Covilhã, Almada, Sintra and Vialonga.
The FENPROF leader added that ‘it’s a strike that will also have a big impact on education because of the school closures, which mean that there are non-teaching workers on strike and there are teachers on strike’, explaining that there are schools where ‘of their 12, 13, 14 (teachers), 11 to 12 are on strike’.
Also present at the rally ‘in solidarity with the workers’ was presidential candidate António Filipe, former vice-speaker of parliament and Communist Party MP.
‘There’s no question that the country needs good public services. We have very serious deficits in general. Public administration careers need to be attractive. What’s being discussed in the State Budget (for 2026) doesn’t point to that at all.’
Frente Comum called this public administration strike from midnight accusing the AD government (PSD/CDS-PP) of degrading working conditions and disinvesting in public services.
Talking to reporters he said that, in the unions’ opinion, ‘what the government is presenting (in the State Budget) is a proposal of improverishment. Frente Comum will not negotiate while workers are made poorer, therefore it is out of the question that we will sign an agreement.’
In addition to the education sector, disruptions are expected due to the lack of doctors, nurses, health service assistants, public transport workers, inspectors, tax officials, judicial officials, etc.
Wage increases, career development, the restoration of public service contracts and the defence of public services are other reasons for calling this ‘major strike’, which covers all state workers.
The Common Front represents 29 unions from all sectors of the public services.
Meanwhile in Germany, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners staff could walk out again amid a dispute over pay, union officials have warned.
Industrial action was held last week at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) sites across Germany and the NGG union said more strikes may be held.
Employees at seven CCEP facilities stopped work in opposition to a derisory pay offer put forward by the Coca-Cola bottler.
NGG and CCEP are set to hold talks on 10 November but the union has warned more action could take place before the start of discussions.
‘Further industrial action may be taken as part of the collective bargaining negotiations but no dates have been set yet,’ Björn Bauer, an NGG managing director, said.
Among the union’s demands is a five per cent pay rise from 1st September and an increase in training allowances.
During the first round of negotiations last month, CCEP tabled a 1.5 per cent increase for 2026. The company said the offer was ‘economically viable and takes into account the current challenging economic situation and the high pay agreements already concluded in recent years’.
NGG described the offer as ‘meagre’.
In July, CCEP announced plans to close a line at its Bad Neuenahr factory in Germany, with more than 20 jobs at risk.
And in France, the major trade union body the CGT has firmly rejected Prime Minister Sebastien Locornu’s budget proposals.
In a statement on Friday, the CGT said: ‘After a massive public outcry, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu was forced to abandon the theft of two public holidays and to “suspend” pension reform by postponing it.
‘Despite this, the budget he is presenting remains far worse than that of his predecessor Francois Beyrou.
‘Mired in a democratic crisis that he himself provoked by his stubbornness in pushing through ever more antisocial reforms (notably the pension reform, against the wishes of the population, all the unions, and parliament), (French president) Emmanuel Macron was forced to change prime ministers once again (the fifth since the beginning of the five-year term).
‘A change of cast does not imply a change of policy, and the budget presented by Sébastien Lecornu is in line with that of François Bayrou: antisocial.
‘But we must not be fooled: beyond the announcements, the Prime Minister’s proposal, in reality more of a delay than a real suspension, is far from satisfactory:
- it only concerns the generations from 1964 to 1968;
- these people would only leave three months earlier than what the reform provides (and not at 62 years and 9 months);
- the application of this provision would confirm the retirement age at 64;
- Worse still, this suspension would not even concern long careers (those who started working before the age of 20).
‘This proposal is unacceptable. The only real suspension is the immediate blocking of the reform at 62 years, 9 months, and 170 quarters for all generations, before its outright repeal.
‘To finance the freeze (100 million euros in 2026 and four billion euros in 2030) and then the repeal (3.5 billion euros in 2026 and 15 billion euros in 2030), a multitude of measures can be taken, including:
- the gradual elimination of the 80 billion euros in social security contribution exemptions, including 5.5 billion euros (£4.8 billion) which are not compensated by the State and which contribute to low-wage traps;
- equal pay for women and men, which would bring in at least six billion euros (£5.24 billion) per year for forty years;
- the broadening of the contribution base to include all bonuses, profit-sharing and participation (4.4 billion euros) (£3.85 billion);
- the increase in the social security contribution on dividends (alignment with so-called employer contributions of at least 10 billion euros);
- the fight against illegal work, which causes a loss of 6 to 8 billion euros in pension contributions.
‘An even more brutal budget for the most vulnerable
‘Faced with the mobilisation, the government had to abandon the elimination of two public holidays. But this proposal was only the tip of the iceberg, and Sébastien Lecornu’s budget remains an unprecedented anti-social burden:
- medical deductibles and contributions (out-of-pocket costs for medication, medical appointments, medical transport, etc.) rising from 100 euros to between 250 and 350 euros per year per person, adding to the explosion in excess fees and the amount of supplementary health insurance;
- freezing of pensions, social benefits (family allowances, housing, disabled adult, RSA) and civil servant salaries, which is equivalent to a reduction taking into account inflation;
- reduction in the budget for public services and the elimination of more than 3,000 jobs in the civil service and social security organisations, while hospitals, schools, universities, nurseries, etc. already do not have the means to function properly;
- maintaining the unemployment insurance reform project , aimed at saving 3 billion euros at the expense of the unemployed.
‘In summary: to protect the ultra-rich and large companies (211 billion euros – £185 billion per year in public aid to private companies without conditions or compensation), the government is placing almost the entire budgetary effort on the population, including the most vulnerable (elderly people, people with disabilities and/or illnesses, low-wage earners, unemployed people, etc.), even though the INSEE is warning of the record level of poverty in France!
‘Continue the fight!’