When the aforementioned union forces hold their general assembly on March 14th, they will be in a position to determine whether or not to move forward with the strike decision announced for the first quarter of 2024.
The secretary for administration and finance of the National Union of Workers of Angola Trade Union Confederation (UNTACS), Adriano dos Santos, told the newspaper OPAÍS that his organization, the General Central of Free and Independent Unions of Angola (CGSILA) and Força Sindical met, recently, with the Ministry of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security (MAPTSS), with this Government institution presenting a four-year pre-agreement. “At the meeting on February 26th, we received from MAPTSS a document indicating a pre-agreement with the focus on reviewing the worker’s condition, every four years.
Therefore, we will examine it with all caution and only after the assembly on March 14, 2024, will we present our counter-proposal”, declared Adriano dos Santos, adding that, as long as this period of time persists, the action of communication with all trade union organizations will continue in the same national order. According to the UNTA-CS representative, the document refers to criteria for treating some of the unions’ demands, but at a very low level of what is the claim of workers’ defenders, starting with the review of employees’ conditions, every four four years.
Although the leaders of the trade union organizations determined to analyze carefully and point by point the pre-agreement proposal presented by MAPTSS, Adriano dos Santos was able to infer that the time horizon contained therein, which contemplates the treatment of the worker’s condition, reveals, in itself, a clear intention to slow down the adjustment of workers’ earnings with a constantly changing socio-economic reality. In fact, the UNTA-CS representative complained about the indifference that Government entities are showing in negotiations, to the point of going to the table with the union forces, when the interest is favorable to them.
It is worth remembering that trade union organizations raised the possibility of calling a national strike across all productive sectors in the country, if the President of the Republic did not accede to their demands presented in a note rejecting the new salary table approved by the Angolan Executive. In vogue, is the fact that they are not reflected in the percentage value defined by the Government, referring to the increase in the national minimum wage, in the order of five percent, which, by the way, is already reflected in the salaries of public servants, since January last.
Another dissatisfaction has to do with the fact that their organizations were excluded from the consultation on the country’s socio-economic situation, which, from the point of view of trade unionists, contradicts the regulations of the National Council for Social Coordination, which provides for two annual meetings. Under the command of the current Government, the union forces claim to have participated in just one meeting.
