Hundreds of workers at Angola Telecom, a public telecommunications and multimedia company, are on strike to demand improved social conditions, which they have been demanding since 2012, a union source told Lusa.
Workers of public telecommunications company Angola Telecom on strike for salary improvement.
According to José Teixeira, delegate and member of the union, the paralysis of services, for the past six days, has only taken place in the province of Luanda, the country’s capital, where more than half of the workers are concentrated – more than 470 of the 886 employees.
The striker stressed that last Friday, a meeting was held with the employer, but the parties did not reach an agreement, “because the employer remains reluctant”.
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José Teixeira stressed that the claims date back to 2012, when a strike took place and in the aftermath “a labor stability pact” was signed.
“This pact said that the employer should continue to improve the living conditions of workers, but from 2012 until now the conditions have been deteriorating, and now more and more,” he said.
The union leader stressed that given the situation, in October, the union leadership began negotiating with the Board of Directors and in December they held a workers’ assembly and a strike was declared.
“Even so, the employer asked for a five-month moratorium, the workers, imbued with good faith, gave the board of directors a vote of confidence. After this deadline, the union committee returned again and the administration always says that it has no money, so the strike that was suspended was lifted last week,” he said.
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The list of demands demands for salary increase, medical assistance, improvement of working conditions, food subsidy, regularization of the INSS (social security) and retirement.
José Teixeira rejects that the argument that the company is without financial conditions to meet the demands of the workers, because the telecommunications sector is profitable.
“Even in the time of covid-19 are the companies that made the most money and a monster like Angola Telecom is that it has no money? If the companies tied to us have money, do we who feed them have no money?” he questioned, stating that “it is impossible”.
“I have been at the service of that company for 33 years and I know what it produces. In 201, the Angolan state injected financial capital to restructure Angola Telecom, where did this money go?” he questioned.
José Teixeira stressed that the workers consider the management’s “mismanagement” to be at the root of these allegations of lack of money, which led to the strike.
