Administrative officials at the Brazilian consulate in Lisbon, the foreign city with the largest number of Brazilian voters, maintained the strike notice for a period coinciding with the first round of elections, on October 2.
As the planning and organization of elections in the Portuguese capital are the responsibility of the consulate, there is fear that the strike could harm the progress of the election, which will have a record 45,273 voters in 2022: an increase of 113.6% compared to 2018
In an assembly on Monday night (19), workers decided to move forward with the strike in the period between September 28 and October 7. The strike notice was communicated to Itamaraty and the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs last Friday (16).
The group, which has not had salary readjustments for 15 years, claims salary increases, as happened with employees who perform a similar role at the Brazilian embassy in Lisbon, who had their salaries readjusted in July.
In a statement, the consulate said that it “follows the issue closely” and denied that the strike could affect the holding of elections.
“The strike will not affect the elections, since in Lisbon there will be 58 polls, and they have already been summoned by the TSE [Tribunal Superior Eleitoral] 232 poll workers. The number of administrative assistants hired locally by the consulate who sent the prior notice of strike is 25”, says the text.
The stoppage could also affect public service at the already overstretched office, which is central to providing services to the country’s growing Brazilian community.
According to the latest data from the SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service), there are about 252,000 Brazilians legally resident in the country. As the statistics do not include who is in an irregular situation or who has dual citizenship of Portugal or another European Union nation, it is estimated that there are at least 400,000 Brazilians in Portugal, a country of approximately 10 million inhabitants.
In August, officials at the Portuguese consulate in São Paulo also threatened a shutdown. The group faces lagged salaries due to the freezing of the euro conversion value at R$2.60: almost half the current value at exchange offices. The strike notice was canceled after a meeting with representatives of the responsible ministry.
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