March 18 () –
More than 100,000 people have demonstrated this Saturday in Libya to demand a general increase in wages and pensions called by the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers-National Intersindical (CGTP-IN) union.
The general secretary of the formation, Isabel Camarinha, has assured that they will not stop the mobilizations until salaries and pensions are raised, reports the newspaper ‘Diário de Notícias’.
“This fight will not stop as long as the increase in wages and pensions and our demands are not guaranteed,” said Camarinha, who stressed that “the construction of a new time” requires “the intensification of the fight.”
“The problems, needs and demands of the workers cannot continue to be left on hold,” he pointed out, for which reason he has asked for “answers and solutions” from the Socialist Party government.
Thus, he has criticized the Government for hiding behind “in the study of price compensation” and not doing anything to alleviate the increase in the cost of living. “It seems that we are idiots and there will be those who will prepare a nice study that confirms that everything is going well (…). It is a new version of ‘the country endures, endures more austerity’ that we already defeated and that we are going to return to defeat”, he underlined.
In particular, he has denounced the “lack of responses” in health, education, social protection or housing. “We demand a general increase in wages, a real increase, which overcomes inflation and recovers and strengthens purchasing power, which allows us to live”, she stressed.
Specifically, they ask for an increase of at least 10 percent and not less than 100 euros for all workers and to raise the interprofessional minimum wage to 850 euros. New protests have been called for March 28 in Lisbon and Porto as well as the mobilizations for April 25 and May Day.
