Messages to U.S. Citizens
November 22, 2011
General Strike November 24, 2011
Public sector unions are planning a 24-hour general strike throughout Portugal beginning after midnight on the 24th of November to protest the government’s austerity measures in the 2012-2013 budget. U.S. citizens can expect street protests, severe disruptions to transport systems and other services throughout the country including air, bus, subway, and train traffic.
AIR—ANA, the Portuguese airport operator, advises passengers scheduled to arrive to or depart from Portugal from 22:00h on November 23 to 24:00h on November 24 to contact their travel providers as flights will be delayed or cancelled. TAP is offering fee waivers for all passengers who wish to rebook. Check out their website (in English) for further information. Easyjet and Ryanair are also offering refunds or free flight transfers on their respective Easyjet and Ryanair websites (in English). Continental Airlines does not have a flight on November 24th; its passengers will not be affected.
BUS—Carris, the Lisbon bus, tram, and cable car company, will be running at 50% of normal service during the strike. More information is available on their website (in Portuguese only).
SCTP, the Porto bus company, will also be running at 50% of normal service levels during the strike.
SUBWAY—Lisbon’s metro service will be out of service from 23:30h on November 23 to 01:00h on November 25. More information is available on their website (in Portuguese only).
Porto’s metro system is expecting delays throughout the system, but, at the time of publishing, did not yet have specific information.
TRAIN—Comboios de Portugal, the Portuguese train company, expects severe disruptions throughout the national, regional, and suburban train systems. As they cannot predict the number of employees who will go on strike or the mandates of the arbitration court, they do not yet know which routes will be affected. More information is available on their website (in English).
Demonstrations: A list of locations and times of demonstrations is available on General Confederation of Workers’ website. The Embassy advises all U.S. citizens to avoid all areas where public protests are taking place. In particular, Americans in the Lisbon area should avoid Avenida de Liberdade from Marquês de Pombal to Rossio and should also avoid the Praça de Comercio areas of town.
Continue to check out the AmCits in Portugal facebook page for more updates.
Should you encounter an emergency situation, do not hesitate to contact the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon.
The U.S. Embassy in Lisbon is located on Avenida das Forças Armadas, in the neighborhood of Sete Rios near the Jardim Zoológico. Telephone: (351) 21 770-2122; fax: (351) 21 727-2354; online: http://lisbon.usembassy.gov/.