More than 200 personalities call for unity in the counter-reform

More than 200 figures, including former CGTP Secretary General Manuel Carvalho da Silva and Socialist MEP Marta Temido, are calling for the CGTP and UGT trade unions to unite in an "effective response to the labor counter-reform."

"The democracy born with the 25th of April is experiencing an unprecedented upheaval. We are witnessing the growth of far-right and populist forces, both in parliament and in society, and the government is preparing a labor counter-reform that is profoundly damaging to workers' rights," reads the petition that will be delivered this Thursday to the leadership of the UGT and CGTP trade unions.

The initiative's main objective is to encourage understanding between the two unions to coordinate efforts to face the challenges posed by Labor XXI.

"It is urgent and urgent that workers and the trade union movement, in keeping with their history, unite to resist and defend the interests of those who work," the petition states, highlighting that "more than ever, in this context, only the CGTP and UGT trade unions , with their unions bringing together the rest , can have the capacity to respond and defend workers."

The first signatories and contact group of this petition are António Brandão Guedes, Augusta de Sousa, Avelino Pinto, Constantino Alves, Deolinda Machado and Guadalupe Simões.

"It is essential to build unity in action, overcoming differences, to conquer the future" and "it is necessary to find commitments to convergent action, respecting the autonomy of each organization, and strategic coordination between the centers, in the face of the challenges that already arise", reads the document, which is signed by university professor and lawyer Miguel Prata Roque and by jurist, former social advisor at the permanent mission of Portugal to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva and former president of the board of directors of the IEFP António Valadas da Silva.

Also signing are actress Isabel Medina, former coordinator of the Autoeuropa Volkswagen Workers' Committee (CT) António Chora and university professor and labor law specialist Joana Neto.

"This is our appeal to the two trade unions so that, in the name of defending labor rights and the dignity of work, they initiate a process of understanding that will allow for an effective response to the labor counter-reform," they add.

The dynamic group that will make the delivery will be made up of Avelino Pinto, former university professor of Social Psychology and former assistant of the LOC (Catholic Workers' League), Constantino Alves, priest and former union leader of the Metalworkers' Union of the South, Deolinda Machado, unionist, former leader of the CGTP-IN and coordinator of the LOC/MTC, Guadalupe Simões, union leader and Augusta de Sous, unionist and former president of the Order of Nurses.