Public transport crawled to a standstill in Portugal on Thursday as unions staged their fourth general strike in two years against government austerity measures adopted in return for an international bailout.
Rush hour traffic was thicker than normal in the Portuguese capital as commuters had to make their way to work without regular bus or train services.
Flights across the country were delayed or cancelled, including those departing from the main hub in the capital Lisbon, Portugal’s airport operator ANA said on its website.
A huge Volkswagen car plant south of Lisbon decided to halt production for the day because of the strike while tax offices and other public services were shut.
“We expect a large number of workers to take part, a huge participation that will further weaken the government,” Armenio Carlos, the head of the country’s biggest union, the Communist-led General Confederation of Portuguese Workers said on the eve of the strike.
Portugal’s second largest and more moderate trade union, the General Union of Workers that had worked with the government on labour code reform, was participating in the walkout, the first time it had joined a general strike in a year and a half.
The show of unity by the two unions is a sign of dwindling patience with the impact of sharp spending cuts and tax increases imposed by the government to slash the deficit.
The last time the two unions banded together in a general strike was in November 2011, just five months after Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho’s centre-right governing coalition came to power.
Portugal is struggling to apply radical budget and economic reforms in exchange for bailout loans of 78 billion euros ($100 billion) agreed by the so-called “troika” — European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — in May 2011.
But as in Greece and Ireland, other eurozone countries that needed a financial lifeline, falling living standards have stoked outrage at the austerity measures, which include the slashing of 30,000 civil service jobs and higher social charges.
Rallies are scheduled to be held in Lisbon and Oporto, Portugal’s second largest city, as well as in the southern city of Faro.
“I agree that people should protest to show our indignation but if I stayed at home I would be hurting my boss when everything is the government’s fault,” said Sergio, a 35-year-old machine operator, as he waited for one of the few buses that were still circulating in the Portuguese capital.
The government expects the economy to contract by 2.3 percent by the end of the year while the unemployment rate has soared to a record 18.2 percent.
The government austerity drive has even come under fire from business leaders, who on Monday strongly criticised the budget rigour imposed by “the troika”.
“The austerity plan for Portugal was a short-term response, applied as if it were the only one possible, but today given the results, no-one can be so irresponsible as to defend it, or even worse pursue it,” the country’s four main employer confederations said in a joint statement.
During a speech in parliament on Wednesday, Coelho defended workers’ right to strike but added “the country needs less strikes and more work”.
The prime minister’s speech was interrupted by protesters who sang a folk song from Portugal’s 1974 “Carnation Revolution” from the public gallery.
Demonstrators have taken to interrupting public officials by singing “Grandola, Vila Morena”, a slow-tempo ballad that was the night-time signal in 1974 for mutinous troops to rise up against Portugal’s four-decade-long dictatorship.
The general strike comes as auditors from the “troika” on Monday began a technical review of progress on reforms in preparation for a regular quarterly audit due to begin on July 15.
Portugal has agreed with lenders to bring its public deficit down to 5.5 percent of output this year and 2.5 percent in 2015, below the EU’s ceiling of 3.0 percent.
Portugal hit by general strike against austerity
