“The strike started at midnight, and no trains were running until 7am. Workers are fully committed to the strike. There are no minimum services,” trade unionist António Lemos told Lusa.

The union leader said that the strike aims to demand better salary conditions for all company employees.

"After exhaustive negotiations with the management of CP – Comboios de Portugal, it was possible to reach a satisfactory agreement regarding salary increases for the current year, but this agreement has been awaiting approval by government authorities since February 2025".

CP – Comboios de Portugal warned over the weekend of the possibility of "severe disruptions to traffic" today due to a strike called by SFRCI - Sindicato Ferroviário da Revisão Comercial Itinerante, which represents inspectors, ticket office workers and sales staff.

According to the company, circulation disturbances may still be felt on Tuesday.

On Sunday, in a statement signed by 13 union structures, including the SFRCI - Sindicato Ferroviário da Revisão Comercial Itinerante, workers' representatives accused the company of having backtracked on negotiations with the justification that the government did not authorise the proposal that the transport company would sign with the workers.

In the note, they indicated that there was a meeting on Saturday afternoon between CP and the unions, in which “the president of the CP administration informed all union organisations that the government did not authorise the administration to apply the last proposal” presented.

According to the unions, this is an “unprecedented process”, as the administration had presented a counterproposal on Thursday and, two days later, “rejected the word” and removed this proposal from the negotiating table.

The union structures state that they were “willing to accept” the conditions of the proposal presented by the company on Thursday, and that it could be “an important step towards solving a structural problem at CP”, but that the situation now is that there is no agreement.

“The president of the administration informed [the unions, at Saturday’s meeting] that the Government rejected the proposal on the grounds that they are in management and cannot authorise the measures provided for in the agreement,” reads the joint statement.

Lusa contacted CP and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, but only received a short response from Miguel Pinto Luz's ministry, which confirmed that the company's proposal “does not fall within the scope of the powers of a government in management”.

According to the unions, CP's proposal involved a new increase from January 2025, in addition to the 34 euros applied per management act, so that the difference with the SMN - National Minimum Wage of 2018 is restored, a variable increase depending on each index.

The company would also increase all workers by 4% in December 2025, in addition to reducing the length of stay in the first index to one year, in the second to two years, in the following to three and in the last to four, starting in January of this year.

In the note, they also say that the two-day strike, on May 7th and 8th, is maintained.