The new president of the General Union of Workers (UGT) in Madeira today defended the adoption of a “new mentality” and “culture of participation and negotiation” by the various partners, stressing the need to “build bridges and not walls.
“I want to end with the most important challenge: to adopt a new mentality, a new culture of participation and negotiation by the various partners. All together we have to build bridges and not walls. Mr. Secretary, we are ready to compromise”, said Leonilde Cassiano, addressing the Regional Secretary of Economy, Rui Barreto, who was at the IV Congress of UGT Madeira representing the Regional Government (PSD/CDS-PP).
Leonilde Cassiano, from the single list running for the social bodies of UGT, was elected today as president of the executive secretariat with 62 votes in favor and two against, succeeding Ricardo Freitas, who reached the limit of three mandates ahead of the regional UGT.
Speaking at the closing of the IV Congress of UGT Madeira, the new president of the structure in the region stressed that “without work, without workers, there is no social progress, and workers are not mere ‘collaborators’.
Leonilde Cassiano challenged the Madeira government, led by social democrat Miguel Albuquerque, “to propose a program for salaries, income, and prices, for the legislature, as well as a concertation that involves the policies of development, equality, sustainability, and training.
“We should also try to find the possible convergence in the policies of taxation, fighting poverty and social inequality,” he stressed.
The union member noted that, in the fiscal sphere, “the full use of the tax differential, on the burden of labor, is delayed,” lamenting that it has been used “for capital and for companies.
Leonilde Cassiano underlined that for UGT Madeira “it is central and a priority to guarantee the real increase in wages and workers’ income”.
And he added that “it is essential to find the best mechanisms to reduce the impacts of insularity”, considering that “it is not acceptable to proclaim that this subsidy has been restored to public administration workers and to some in the business sector and in fact what happens is that it is phased in, decreasing according to the basic salary of each one”.
“When will the real replacement for all, or their increase in a multi-year commitment, for their increase, as we have requested and demanded for the last five years,” he questioned.
“Even in the Public Administration, the Government cannot respond positively to some professional groups and forget the great majority. In particular, it must attend and never forget the regional careers that are its entire responsibility,” he criticized.
At the closing of the IV Congress of UGT Madeira, the regional secretary of Economy, Rui Barreto, and the general secretary of UGT, Ricardo Mourão, also spoke.
