The new Labor Package presented by the government triggered a wave of indignation across the country. It is no coincidence that, for the first time in more than a decade, CGTP, UGT and independent unions come together to call what is expected to be one of the biggest General Strikes in recent years. When a government tries to impose a historic setback on the rights of those who work, the response must be firm and it must be collective.
In the Algarve, the consequences of this labor attack are particularly violent. Here, precariousness is not a statistic: it is everyday life. It’s going from fixed-term contract to fixed-term contract, it’s enduring twelve-hour shifts in the summer and uncertainty in the winter, it’s being treated like disposable labor in a region that lives off tourism that enriches a few and sacrifices thousands. Individual time banking steals overtime from workers who already pay unsustainable incomes. The easing of ties transforms the so-called high season into a time of permanent exhaustion. The withdrawal of rights from new mothers worsens a region where there are almost no places in daycare centers and the birth rate is dwindling. All this in an Algarve where living has become a luxury, but working continues to be a torture.
But there is a truth that needs to be said clearly: this labor package hits young people with brutal force.
Student at Escola Secundária Dr. Francisco Fernandes Lopes, in Olhão;
He is 17 years old and is an activist in the student movement
A nossa geração merece mais do que contratos descartáveis, horários abusivos e salários que não chegam para viver
The most qualified generation in the country’s history is also the most precarious generation. Around 30% of young Portuguese people have already emigrated and it is not because of an adventurous spirit, as some try to romanticize. It’s because the country closes its doors to them. And in the Algarve, that door closes even earlier.
Young people here grow up seeing their parents exhausted every summer, seeing schoolmates giving up their studies to work seasonally, and realizing from an early age that future and stability rarely fit in the same sentence. Those who try to study face heavy tuition fees, expensive transport, internships without decent pay and a job market that offers everything but security. Those who try to work see their salary disappear into income, food and transportation, with no room for independence or stability.
For many young people in the Algarve, the dilemma is no longer choosing to stay or leave. It’s figuring out how long they can last before being pushed out. The government, by deepening precariousness with this labor package, sends a crystal clear message: your rights can wait. But they can’t. Not when so many students depend on part timers who already work too many hours and pay too little. Not when young people live suffocated between the cost of living, the lack of housing and the permanent threat of unstable contracts. Not when more and more young people are forced to accept any job to survive, even with higher education.
This is precisely why the General Strike is also a student one. What is at stake today is the country in which we will work, or leave, tomorrow. The fight for labor rights is inseparable from the fight for young people’s right to a dignified future. For many of us, precarity is nothing new. It’s routine. And if we don’t make our voices heard now, today’s setbacks will be tomorrow’s currents.
On December 11th, students, young workers, interns, scholarship holders, precarious workers and everyone who refuses this setback have the responsibility to join the General Strike. It’s not just a strike. It is a clear warning that we will not accept our future being stolen from us. Our generation deserves more than disposable contracts, abusive hours and salaries that are not enough to live on. On December 11th, we did not cross our arms. We lift them up. For dignity. For the future. For us.
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