If you live in Lisbon and take public transport then get ready for this Thursday morning. Indeed a partial strike of workers of the Lisbon subway is scheduled for Thursday morning and chaos is ensured for all those who use the metropolitan Lisbon every day. No minimum service will be provided for the traffic, according to the decision of the arbitral tribunal rendered Tuesday. This is justified by the existence of "other means of transport" and the "right of movement" of users. This strike will cause a total shutdown of the network between 06h and 09h30. What are the demands of this strike on the Lisbon subway ? How will users be impacted? Bob, the expatriate's assistant in Portugal, tells you everything about the Lisbon subway strike on Thursday 17 October 2018.

A strike without minimum service because other means of transport are available

The decision of the arbitral tribunal not to provide a minimum service has been published on the website of the Economic and Social Council, where it can be read in particular that "there are other means of transport through which the citizens concerned can exercise their rights. right to travel, without restricting the right to strike of such workers. " Basically, everyone can manage to move then the minimum service is not necessary.

The court explains that "the conclusion that it has reached is that it is not necessary, by constitutional and legal criteria, to define the minimum services relating to the movement of subways, even if it is a question of 'a short strike and this because there are other alternative means of transport available to citizens'.

A subway completely stopped between 06h and 09h30

The strike of the Lisbon subway will affect the movement of trains until 9:30: "The strike of the majority of the workers - and this also affects the operational area - will be from 06:00 to 09:30 Administrative employees will be at the stop of 10:00 at 12:30, "said a source from Fectrans (Federation of Transport and Communications Unions) to the newspaper Lusa.

Lisbon Metro workers justify this partial strike as a protest against the proposed € 24.50 multi-year wage adjustment for 2018 and 2019, which was presented to unions last Wednesday by the Board of Directors of Metro de Lisboa . This salary increase of 24.50 for two years is only half the amount expected and demanded by the workers.

Bob advises you for this strike day of the Lisbon metro to use Gira, bicicletas de Lisboa, or Lime, the electric scooters.

Bob is the assistant of expats in Lisbon and Portugal : find out how he can help you!