“The participation in the partial strike was significant at 08:00. The strike is partial and there are minimal services, [even so] there are disruptions to the service”, Manuel Leal, from the Union of Road and Urban Transport Workers of Portugal (STRUP), which called the strike, told Lusa.

Manuel Leal postponed more specific data on the participation in the partial strike by Carris workers, which will take place during the first and last hours of the daily work of each professional in the various sectors (traffic, workshops or administration) and will run until Friday.

Trade unions representing workers at the Lisbon company (which operates the city's public road service as well as trams and street elevators) have called for a two-hour strike at the beginning and end of each shift between today and June 6th and a 24-hour strike on June 12th, with minimum services having been decreed by an arbitration court.

In addition to mandatory services such as exclusive transportation for the disabled or the company's medical clinics, bus routes 703, 708, 717, 726, 735, 736, 738, 751, 755, 758, 760 and 767 must operate “at 50% of their normal schedule”.

On May 13, the National Union of Drivers and Other Workers (SNMOT) explained that the agreement on salary updates would not imply the end of the negotiation process and that, together with the company, it would form “working groups with a view, in particular, to reducing the working week in phases to 35 hours”.

According to the union, it had already been possible to reduce the actual work week to approximately 37 hours and 30 minutes, “a fact that was only accepted by all those involved in this process some time later”, and the first meeting of the working group created to reduce the actual work week to 35 hours was held on April 30.

Speaking to Lusa on Friday, Carris president Pedro de Brito Bogas stressed that he has had “a good dialogue with the unions”, but admitted as evidence that “the unions always want more”.

“This year we have had this difficulty, we are having this difficulty of being in a cycle of strong salary increases and at the same time there is a demand for a reduction in the working day from 40 to 35 hours”, he said.

According to Pedro Bogas, the reduction from 40 to 35 hours, which the manager says is a legitimate ambition, is “extremely difficult and puts the company’s sustainability at risk”.

Carris has been managed by the Lisbon City Council since 2017 and workers are represented by several union structures, such as SNMOT, the Union of Road and Urban Transport Workers (STRUP), Sitra - Transport Workers' Union, Sitese - Union of Service Sector Workers and ASPTC - Trade Union Association of Carris and Subsidiaries Workers.