Name: Portugal braces for strike as unions unite against labour reforms
Uploaded: 2025-12-11T08:23:53.809Z
Duration: 1 min 48 s
Description: Portugal prepares for widespread disruption as trade unions unite against proposed labour reforms.

Portugal prepares for widespread disruption as trade unions unite against proposed labour reforms.

Lisbon

Portugal is facing growing unrest as the government proposes labour reforms that critics say will make it easier to fire workers, increase flexible contracts, and reduce job protections. In response, the country's main trade unions have united in a rare show of solidarity to call for a general strike, highlighting widespread concern among workers, particularly in sectors like healthcare.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro argues the reforms are necessary to boost productivity and attract investment, while union leaders warn they will erode workers' rights. The debate underscores the challenge Portugal faces in balancing economic competitiveness with the protection of employee rights.

Portugal braces for strike as unions unite against labour reforms

Filipe Castilho has worked as a hospital nurse in Lisbon for more than 20 years. She loves caring for people, but says the low pay, long hours and poor conditions for Portugal's health workers are unfair. Now she fears that the Portuguese government's planned labour reforms will make things worse. In Portugal, when nurses graduate, their salaries are only just above the minimum wage. With the cost of living, inflation, I had to work two jobs, so I ended up quitting the public sector for private. Discontent is brewing in the country. Last month thousands of people protested against the proposed reforms that they say would make it easier to fire workers, increase flexible contracts and reduce some protections. Now in a rare show of unity, Portugal's main trade unions have called for a general strike. Trade union leaders say the reforms would erode workers' rights, but the Prime Minister Luis Montenegro says the measures would boost productivity, encourage investment and make the labour market more competitive. Montenegro's government faces a difficult balancing act, says this expert. Portugal is still in this very difficult chapter in its life to negotiate between the need to open the labour market and the need to guarantee some rights that workers feel that are under attack. Filipe is happier these days with her job in the private sector, but if Portugal's parliament approves the labour reforms, she says she worries about what could be on the horizon.

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