"Colleagues understood the message and if they visit hospitals, schools, public offices, notaries, [identification services], courts, there is in fact a total standstill", said, this Monday, Teixeira Cândido, one of the spokespeople of trade unions.
To Lusa, the union leader stated that the strike is not the result of a mere desire of the workers, but rather of the "indifference of the Angolan Government towards the concerns contained in the union centrals' list of demands".
Workers "are being pushed to do this in the face of the Government's indifference to the concerns contained in the union centrals' list of demands and we have to complete this phase by the 30th [of April]", he highlighted.
This Monday, workers are completing the first day of the second phase of the general strike, called by the Central Geral de Sindicatos Independentes e Livres de Angola (CGSILA), União Nacional dos Trabalhadores Angolanos - Confederação Sindical (UNTA-CS) and Força Sindical - Central Sindical (FS-CS) and which should take place until the 30th of this month.
An increase in the minimum wage, adjustment of civil service salaries and tax reductions are among the demands in the demand list sent to the President, João Lourenço, in September 2023.
For Teixeira Cândido, also general secretary of the Angolan Journalists' Union, the Government is "indifferent" to workers' concerns, "which is why it does not negotiate and has not presented proposals that come even remotely close to the demands of the unions".
"This is a response to the cost of living, due to the inability of not being able to provide our family with the minimum for 30 days. This is the transversal reality, from Cabinda to Cunene today it is a luxury to have three meals", lamented the union leader.
In the list of demands, the three union centrals demand an increase in the national minimum wage, from the current 32,000 kwanzas, to 245,000 kwanzas, a proposal made flexible, however, to 100,000 kwanzas, a readjustment of the Public Service salary, in the order of 250 percent, and the 10 percent reduction in Labor Income Tax (IRT).
The executive decided to propose a minimum wage depending on the size of the company, namely 48,000 kwanzas for small companies, 70,000 kwanzas for medium-sized companies and 96,000 kwanzas for large companies, which was rejected by the unions.
