Lisbon subway workers schedule 24-hour strike to protest privatization

Portuguese transport workers' unions have called a 24-hour strike for Lisbon subway workers starting at 2300 GMT Monday in a protest against the Portuguese government's plans to privatize the subway system's management company Metropolitano de Lisboa, the Federation of Transport and Communications Unions (FECTRANS) said on Monday.

According to FECTRANS, the strike is an effort to "continue the fight to keep the metro in the State sector." The government announced a tender to privatize Metropolitano de Lisboa and Lisbon bus company Carris for a nine-year period. If the decision passed, the privatization would be launched before the end of 2014.

The shutdown will be the fourth time the Lisbon subway has ground to a halt since this September as the center-right government continues to cut pay and privatize companies to meet the targets laid out in its 78-billion-euro (about 98 billion U.S. dollars) bailout program. Portugal made a clean exit from the bailout program in May of this year, but austerity measures remain in place.

Portugal has already sold the postal operator CTT Correios and the airport management company ANA. Previously, the government also sold the power utility EDP and the power grid operator REN.

The sale of Lisbon and Portuguese transport companies has been one of the most controversial issues discussed in parliament, with the opposition accusing the government of putting the interests of workers and passengers at stake. (1 euro = about 1.28 U.S. dollars) Enditem