Lisbon, March 9. Doctors and train drivers are joining protests this week that teachers in Portugal have been staging since the end of 2022 to demand better salaries, in a year when labor unrest has soared in the country.
The doctors’ strike has rallied more than 85% support, according to the organizers, and has paralyzed a large part of the public health services.
With the call, which started this Wednesday and ends today at midnight, the Portuguese National Federation of Doctors (FNAM) calls for “better working conditions and decent wages, because only this will prevent this hemorrhage of doctors from the National Health Service”, according to the president of the FNAM, Joana Bordalo e Sá.
The Public Health crisis has worsened in recent months due to the lack of material and human resources, particularly in the Obstetrics-Gynecology emergency services.
The National Federation of Doctors threatens to repeat the strikes if the government does not respond to the demands of the professionals.
Train drivers are also demanding improvements from the government and, after a series of strikes that paralyzed rail transport for several days in February, they are once again calling for a demonstration for this Friday with 30% of the minimum service.
Teachers, the most combative since the beginning of the year, with strikes and massive mobilizations in the main cities of the country, today analyze new protests after five months of negotiations with the government which have not resulted in a reconciliation.
For now, the unions are maintaining the strikes started between March 13 and 17 in public schools across the country.
The campaign also rose up today against the government of António Costa, which they accuse of “doing nothing to help” in the fifth day of mobilization called so far this year to demand funds for the farmers.
Labor unrest soared in Portugal, fueled by rising inflation, which hit 8.5% in February. EFE
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