Portuguese unions join in general strike against austerity plan

Portugal's two main labor unions joined forces for the first time in 22 years to convene a general strike that managed to collapse many public services, including health and transportation, on Wednesday.

The country's airspace has been practically closed throughout the day, and Spanish airlines had to cancel nearly all the 50 or so daily flights that link Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona with Lisbon and Porto.

Meanwhile, government workers stayed home in large numbers, the national media reported. Although the government had not yet ventured an estimate of the general repercussion of the stoppage by mid-afternoon, it did admit the strike had a 40-percent following in the health sector.

The unions CGTP and UGT said they were confident they would paralyze the nation to protest against the economic policies of the Socialist leader, José Sócrates, whose government pushed through an austerity plan in parliament on November 3 through the abstention of the main opposition group, the center-right Social Democratic Party.

A difficult economic situation coupled with strong market pressure led the Portuguese government to adopt a set of unpopular measures not unlike those enacted in Spain, such as a higher value-added tax, cuts in public investment and social benefits, and pay reductions for public workers. Unions say that this kind of policy is mistaken and that it will increase unemployment, which currently stands at 10.9 percent, surpassing the government's target for the end of the year of 10.6 percent.

Portugal is looking to reduce its budget deficit from 9.3 percent of GDP to 4.6 percent next year through an austere state budget for 2011, and it is unlikely that the strike, no matter how successful, will have any bearing on the government's austerity plans for the country.

The last general strike in Portugal took place in 2007, but it was only backed by CGTP.