The revisers and ticket workers started a partial strike on the June 5 that extended to July 5 to contest a “lack of equality” in CP’s salaries.

In a declaration to Lusa, the Itinerant Commercial Revision Railway Union (SFRCI), Luís Bravo, stated that the situation still isn’t solved, as the workers are “unhappy,” having given in a strike notice on Wednesday for the period between July and August 6.

“From July 6 to 10 we’ll have a partial strike on the seventh hour of workers in Cascais. From July 12 to 18 the strike is of extraordinary work across the country. Over the whole month workers will go on strike against special trains and those with over eight carriages,” he highlighted.

According to Luís Bravo, the strike in August will affect special trains that CP made available for World Youth Day.

“These special trains are normally made available by the company for special events like concerts, and in this case, it will affect World Youth Day, for which 48 special trains have been booked,” he said.

Luís Bravo also announced that workers will strike against trains with over eight carriages, explaining that there have been many construction works going on at stations and there have been cases where trains would stop outside the station, which has caused incidents with passengers.

The adhesion to the reviser and ticket worker strike at CP which began on June 5 has been “better than expected,” according to the union.

“Today there’s a strike in the North. All workers North of Pombal are on strike against shifts exceeding 18 hours. The suppression rate is enormous up there. Once again, workers are showing the company that it isn’t acceptable for higher salaries to be prioritised in a moment of crisis.”

According to the syndicate leader, the workers are “very unhappy” with the situation going on in the company.

The union has argued that there is a “lack of equity in CP” and fears that job posts will be put in jeopardy. The train operator has already guaranteed that won’t happen, having reached an agreement with the rest of the unions.

“This hasn’t happened in 10 years. There have been raises, but they were equal. The way the complementary bonus CP was given by the Government has been spent is unequal, it prejudices workers with lower salaries. The workers are equally unhappy with the fact that revisers’ job posts are being put in question.”

Luís Bravo said the syndicate had a meeting on Tuesday with the company, but that it wasn’t conclusive.

The strike called by the SFRCI, focusing on the situations with ticket offices and CP revisers, led to a suppression of 3938 trains between June 5 and July 21, according to CP.

A total of 19,908 trains were scheduled for this period, out of those 15,970 ran.