The Liberal Initiative will present a proposal in parliament that aims to return to users of the CP of the value of the pass corresponding to the strike days, announced this Monday the leader of the party, Rui Rocha.
Liberals want “the return of the value of the pass corresponding to the days when there is no service and in which, therefore, people have to go either by alternative public transport, or through their own means, or through transport services by taxi and Uber”, explained the president of IL.
Rui Rocha was this Monday at the train station in the parish of Agualva-Cacém, in the municipality of Sintra, on a day when workers from CP — Comboios de Portugal were again on strike due to an impasse in salary negotiations.
“We are going to move forward with a legislative initiative in this sense so that, at least, when people do not benefit from the service, the amount they invest in the monthly pass can be returned to them”, he said.
Asked about this proposal, Rui Rocha detailed that the return would be made “in proportion”, exemplifying that the 40 euros of a monthly pass would be divided by 30 days, and that the amount corresponding to each day in which there was a strike, and “on which there were no minimum services”, would be returned to users.
In addition to this proposal, IL argues that “there should be competition from rail service providers whenever possible” and the concession of transport service from CP itself. In yet another day of strike by CP workers, the leader of the Liberal Initiative accused the State of being a “bad employer”.
“It fails to resolve the social conflict, strikes follow one another and this also fits in with what we have been saying in the IL, which is the exhaustion of the solutions that the PS and the Government have for the country, for the economy, for society but also for the management of public companies”, he criticized.
Rui Rocha pointed to a “situation of permanent social conflict within the CP” which has two consequences, the first “from the point of view of its own workers, who are dissatisfied and manifest themselves in this way”.
“The second is the consequence this has for users of CP’s rail transport service, who are experiencing a real ordeal with the succession of days of strike. they don’t know what time they will return at the end of the working day and they also don’t know what financial resources they have to invest, because they buy the pass to access the service but then they don’t have service”, he lamented.
At the train station, Rui Rocha approached some of the people waiting on the platform. Eunice, who was waiting for a train to Lisbon-Oriente, complained to the IL leader that she didn’t know what time she would arrive or return home. “Sometimes the mistress is in a good mood, other times she is in a bad mood, one time she pays for the taxi, another time she doesn’t want to pay anything and then when it’s time to go back, I get home at eleven at night because I have to go skipping around Uber, by metro, until you arrive”, he lamented.
Asked whether the social pass measure failed, Rui Rocha replied that these passes “are obviously an important measure but it was good that they worked” and criticized the “lack of service even when there is no strike”.
CP suppressed 143 trains out of the 249 scheduled between midnight and 8 am this Monday due to the strike by the carrier’s workers, according to a statement sent by the company to Lusa.
CP workers this Monday started more strikes, with the carrier warning of “severe disturbances” until March 2, in a protest over the stalemate in salary negotiations that also involves Infra-estruturas de Portugal (IP).
This strike was called after another stoppage between the 8th and the 21st of February.