Last day of strike at CP suppressed 186 trains out of 1,193 scheduled until 8 pm

Thus, 1,007 trains took place today, according to CP.

In the long-haul service, out of 72 trains, 12 were suppressed, while in the regional service, out of a total of 283 estimated trains, 68 did not take place.

In urban Lisbon, 80 trains out of 571 estimated were suppressed and, in Porto, out of 236 scheduled, 21 trains did not circulate.

In the urban areas of Coimbra, out of 31 scheduled trains, five did not take place.

Contacted by “Lusa”, António Domingues, from the National Union of Drivers of the Portuguese Railways (SMAQ), said that the strike took place according to what the union structure had foreseen, “with a full day of strike on March 10” and then “in the following days [com greve] partial, to all services exceeding seven and a half hours”.

“There was no contact from the company or guardianship, so we are considering embarking on a new process of struggle”, he advanced, noting that plenary sessions of workers were held throughout the country and that the SMAQ should, “soon” advance with new notice of strike.

The strike was called by SMAQ against the latest proposal for salary increases of 51 euros, which represents an average career progression of 3.89%, which the union structure considers “clearly unacceptable”.

The workers started the strike to perform any and all work in the categories represented by the SMAQ, from the last hours of Thursday until the early hours of Saturday.

From 00:00 on Saturday until 23:59 today, workers carry out a “work strike at all normal daily work periods that have an expected duration of more than seven hours and 30 minutes, for categories Machinist or Technical Machinist”.

In February, strikes called by various CP unions led to the suppression of hundreds of convoys a day.