The Union of Workers of Manufacturing Industries, Food, Commerce, Offices, Tourism and Transport (SITACEHTT) of the Azores called on the Portuguese State this Thursday to pay the salaries of workers at the Lajes Base, if the North Americans do not do so.
“Payments are the responsibility of Americans. By not complying with this payment, the Americans, in our opinion, It will have to be the Portuguese State that assumes these payments, because it is the Portuguese State that represents these workers”said the coordinator of SITACEHTT/Açores, Vítor Silva, at a press conference.
Portuguese workers serving the Feusaçores (North American forces deployed at Lajes Base), on the island of Terceira, are paid fortnightly. In the last fortnight, they did not receive the equivalent amount for the period between October 1st and 4th, due to the introduction of a temporary and unpaid suspension applicable to North American civil servants.
“It is a situation of tremendous injustice in relation to the weakest part, the Portuguese workers at Lajes Base and from a political point of view it is possible to do much more than what has been done”highlighted Vítor Silva.
The union leader appealed to the Government of the Republic to take over “a more demanding and firm stance towards the United States of America, within the scope of the Cooperation and Defense Agreement” between the two countries.
In addition to the payment of salaries, he argued that “immediately” measures such as the application of salary increases in 2025, the review of salary tables to prevent the lowest levels from being lower than the regional minimum wage, the application of salary updates retroactive to January 1st and the application of occupational medicine.
“If the Portuguese State has had a much more dynamic position with the United States, we would possibly not be at this point now. It is this inertia on the part of the Portuguese State that, in our opinion, causes situations to reach this point”he stressed, claiming that many of these claims were made 20 years ago.
The criticism also extends to members of the Regional Government of the Azores, who, according to the union leader, had a different stance when they were in opposition.
“Some of the parties involved in the current process, in 2011, when the [fim do] salary survey were constantly in the media, and rightly so, defending the Portuguese workers at Base das Lajes. Now they are on the other side of the barricade and practically what they do is send a letter to the Government of the Republic. It’s very little, we want much more than that”pointed.
Since May 2024, the Permanent Bilateral Commission between Portugal and the United States has not met, which, according to the union, poses obstacles to the resolution of labor conflicts at the Lajes Base.
“We have Portuguese and Azorean representatives on the Labor Commission and the Bilateral Commission and these representatives have to be much more demanding. The least that can be done is to demand that meetings take place, in accordance with what is established, which is every six months”he stressed.
SITACEHTT also defended that the Portuguese Government must safeguard a minimum contingent of 450 Portuguese workers in Lajes and the establishment of response deadlines at the different levels of conflict resolution.
“If we had safeguarded in the Cooperation and Defense Agreement that the number of Portuguese workers was 450, the workers at the Lajes Base would not always be in a situation of instability, without knowing when the next dismissal will happen.”he stressed.
On the same day, the Parliament of the Azores approved a resolution calling for the immediate regularization of outstanding salaries.
The leader of the PS/Açores and deputy to the Assembly of the Republic, Francisco César, also asked the Government of the Republic for urgent clarifications due to late payments and “other labor irregularities” that affect Portuguese workers at Lajes Base.
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