Workers in the construction industry are going to present the AICCOPN association with a proposal for increases of 200 euros for professionals, threatening to go on strike and protest at the entity if their demands are not met.
Speaking to Lusa, Albano Ribeiro, chairman of the board of the Portuguese Construction Union, said that the organization would present a proposal to the Association of Civil Construction and Public Works Industrialists (AICCOPN) to raise wages by an average of 200 euros for workers, saying that “only by increasing wages” will it be possible to prevent professionals from leaving Portugal.
“For example, a skilled worker, a carpenter, earns 780 euros, a foreman currently earns 850 euros, and an engineer earns 1,100 euros,” he said, adding that with the proposal the union will present to AICCOPN, an engineer would earn 1,300 euros, a foreman 1,050 euros and a skilled worker 985 euros.
According to Albano Ribeiro, the proposal is “a 200 euro increase for the workers”.
“Every month hundreds [of workers] leave” and “there are public works that won’t go ahead, such as the upgrading of schools, hospitals, for example, the railroad and I’m not even talking about [Lisbon] airport,” said Albano Ribeiro.
The union president also recalled the housing crisis in Portugal. “At the moment, the construction sector should be building more than 90,000 homes for the country’s needs, but it’s only building around 30,000 homes” a year, because “there are no workers”, he warned.
Albano Ribeiro also warned of the lack of investment in the sector, pointing out that “there were training centers in all the district capitals to train construction workers and now there are none,” adding that the union recently met with the government about this issue.
At the moment, said the union leader, the sector has around 450,000 workers, but has lost 300,000 since Expo 98.
“The workers are going to respond and we’re going to present clauses, and if the sector’s business association isn’t receptive, of course they’ll fight for their proposals,” said Albano Ribeiro, recalling that the sector was one of the few that never stopped during the pandemic. “I think these workers deserve more respect, and respect means better wages,” he said, adding that there are already businesses that pay the wages that the union is going to propose, but in other companies this is not the case.
“There are entrepreneurs who agree with our proposals,” he said.
According to Albano Ribeiro, “this could end up with a sit-in in front of the association, for example”, something he said was “not unprecedented”.
He said that if AICCOPN doesn’t give the answer they expect, “naturally the workers will mobilize, stop, strike and go to the association to protest. It’s normal, it’s part of democracy,” but it’s something they still want to avoid, he said.
“When civil society itself learns of these proposals, I have no doubt that it will stand in solidarity with the construction workers,” he said.
Lusa has contacted AICCOPN and is awaiting a response.
