Portugal’s tanker drivers call off strike

Portuguese fuel tanker drivers whose strike has caused fuel shortages at the summer holiday season on Sunday ended their industrial action.

Drivers have been staging a strike since Monday to demand further wage increases in 2021 and 2022, prompting the government to declare an energy crisis.

“Since all the conditions are now in place to negotiate, we decided to end the strike,” Pedro Pardal Henriques, spokesman for the National Union of Dangerous Goods Carriers (SNMMP), told reporters.

A meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, the union President Francisco Sao Bento said, adding that the union did not “rule out new strikes being called if Antram (the employers association) adopts an uncompromising attitude”.

Police had launched an operation to escort fuel tankers with extra supplies and Portugal also mobilised about 500 members of the security forces to replace the strikers and drive the trucks.

Despite the shortages, Energy Minister Joao Pedro Matos Fernandes said about two-thirds of the country’s 3,000 or so petrol stations had not run dry.